The Merchant of Venice (opera) In his will he left his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company for use in productions of "Hamlet". Tchaikowsky met the theatre director John O'Brien in 1968 and they agreed to attempt an opera on "The Merchant". O'Brien has noted "At first it seemed odd that [Tchaikowsky], as a Jew, would want to take Shylock on, particularly at a time when there was a feeling that Shakespeare was anti-Semitic, which is a nonsensical thing anyway." Most of the opera was written by 1978, and following discussions with the music critic Hans Keller, Tchaikowsky decided to submit it for consideration to
SR Merchant Navy Class 35006 Peninsular & Oriental S. N. Co. SR Merchant Navy Class 35006 Peninsular & Oriental S. N. Co. 35006 "Peninsular & Oriental S. N. Co." is a Southern Railway rebuilt Merchant Navy Class 4-6-2 steam locomotive. It was built at Eastleigh locomotive works in December 1941 and given the Southern Railway number 21C6. Although the first two members of the Merchant Navy class had their air-smoothed casings made of sheet steel, 21C6 was one of eight in which the casing was made of asbestos board, with a visible horizontal fixing strip along the centre line. 21C6 was allocated to Salisbury Shed where it remained based throughout her