The Merchant of Venice (opera)

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.

A playthrough of the first two acts was arranged in December 1981, with Harewood and the ENO artistic director David Pountney and conductor Mark Elder in attendance.

Keith Warner directed the production, which was also supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Grand Theatre – National Opera, Warsaw.

Act II takes place at Portia's residence at Belmont, where Bassanio is able to win her hand after defeating two foreign princes in choosing correctly between three caskets of gold, silver and lead.

Portia and her servant Nerissa, disguised as lawyers, successfully defend Antonio and force Shylock to forgo his loan, to accept Lorenzo as a son-in-law, and to convert to Christianity.

[12] A review in the Financial Times commented that The results are striking... Warner's staging treads a fine line between harsh cruelty and levity, with a good mix of clarity and complexity... Tchaikowsky's music... defies attribution to any one definite style of 20th-century composition.

[9] Lynch is an African American and this in the opinion of the critic of The Guardian gave the opera "a further racist edge...[and] a deliberately shocking contemporary resonance.