Le Mariage de Figaro by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Be...

The Revolution was now in full swing, but the opera had excised many of those criticisms of the aristocracy which the public would be expecting. Da Pontes cuts also insured that generations of future opera-goers would view Figaro merely as a pleasant comedy of manners, not the caustic revolutionary vehicle of Beaumarchais.Īlthough Parisian opera companies of the late eighteenth century generally refused to mount operas by foreign composers who did not reside in Paris, in 1792 the directors of the Paris Opéra decided to make an exception for Figaro in order to honor the recently deceased composer and to take advantage of the immense popularity of the play. The task demanded that the librettist delete or significantly de-emphasize the plays controversial aspects in order to get it past the censors in Vienna. In 1786, Lorenzo Da Ponte converted this contemporary play into an Italian operatic libretto, Le nozze di Figaro, for Mozart to set to music.

The ardently feminist character of Marceline (who was to become Marcellina in the opera) so disconcerted the companys male administrators that they deleted her most virulent speech from the first production, declaring that no actress in Paris was capable of portraying the breadth of emotions that the monologue demanded. When the play finally reached the Comédie-Française, the leading French theater found further problems with it. Furthermore, the character of Figaro could be downright insolent, occasionally even venting his anger directly to the Counts face. During the politically volatile years just before the French Revolution, the play aroused governmental anger not only by its outright calls for social equality, but also for the contempt with which persons of noble birth were treated: servants were more clever and humane than the aristocracy they served. Though the playwright wrote this sequel to The Barber of Seville during the period 1775-1778, it was not until 1784 that the Parisian censors permitted its performance at the Comédie-Française.

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchaiss masterpiece, La Folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (The Crazy Day, or the Marriage of Figaro), swirled in controversy during the earliest years of its existence.

Le Mariage de Figaro by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Be...