The Merchant of Venice "play Antonio as gay". Joseph Fiennes, however, who plays Bassanio, encouraged a homoerotic interpretation and, in fact, surprised Irons with the kiss on set, which was filmed in one take. Fiennes defended his choice, saying "I would never invent something before doing my detective work in the text. If you look at the choice of language … you'll read very sensuous language. That's the key for me in the relationship. The great thing about Shakespeare and why he's so difficult to pin down is his ambiguity. He's not saying they're gay or they're straight, he's leaving it up to his
The Merchant of Venice (opera) role of Shylock was sung by the baritone Lester Lynch. 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." The Bregenz production was recorded as a DVD by Unitel Classica in 2014, and issued together with a documentary DVD about the planning and development of the production directed by Mark Charles (Unitel 2072708-1/-2). Notes Sources The Merchant of Venice (opera) The Merchant of Venice is an opera by André Tchaikowsky (1935–1982) to a libretto, based on the Shakespeare play, by John