Synopsis - Introduction
Act I  -  Act II - Act III - Act IV

Does art have the ability to sway history, or does it merely foreshadow the inevitable waves that rock (and sometimes destroy) all government and social systems? Though he probably didn't know it at the time, Beaumarchais's The Marriage of Figaro in many ways heralded a turning point in history, an end of an era marked by opulence and wealth for nobility and clergy but social inequality and poverty by most. Is it any wonder therefore, that the highly political play, with its harsh criticism of French culture was originally banned from the Parisian stage? King Louis XVI himself declared "We should have to destroy the Bastille if a performance of this play was not to be a dangerous blunder. This man mocks everything that must be respected in a government."

	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

It was, in fact, politics that brought the work back to the stage however, when playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais called in a few favors, not the least of which was his role as arms supplier to the American Revolution, and the subsequent embarrasment to England at the hand of the French government. Louis relented, and when the play premiered in 1784 it was an immediate (if controversial) success.

Mozart, on the heels of The Abduction from the Seraglio was looking to make a name for himself in Italian opera and, never to shy away from controversy, was in fact attracted to the play in part because of its notoriety. It was the second in a trilogy of plays (the first was The Barber of Seville) that would be put into operatic form by Rossini years later. While some of the characters remain from the first play, Figaro is set in the castle of Count Almaviva, and has an added list of characters. Of central importance to the work is the highly debated "droit de seigneur," a feudal lord's right to enjoy the affections of a bride on her wedding night before her husband, were she a member of his court.

Act I  -  Act II - Act III - Act IV