The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro (Penguin Classics)

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE dated from 1775. In 1784 the first performance of LA FOLLE or LE MARRIAGE DE FIGARO took place. Mozart's opera was performed for the first time in 1786 in Vienna. The dimension of characterization is what is new in the plays. Also, there is lightness of touch. They are derived from older models. THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO is a true sequel to THE BARBAER OF SEVILLE it is stated in the introduction. Parisian audiences identified Beaumarchais with Figaro. Figaro proclaims in the first play that habitual misfortune has compelled him to laugh. Where Count Almaviva asks if Bartholo is honest, Figaro replies that he is honest enough to avoid being hanged. When Bartholo reacts to the presence of Figaro in his house, Rosine says sarcastically when Bartholo attempts to draw the lattice closed to just wall her up. Bazile, the music master and the friend of Bartholo, defends his actions to Bartholo claiming that Count Almaviva always has a pocketful of irresistible arguments. In THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO Figaro allows that once a man has been enraged he can be maneuvered into doing anything. The Count is annoyed because he seems to run into Cherubin everywhere. It seems the 'wretched page' jumped out of the window to get away from the wrath of the Count. The Countess (Rosine) says that it is more than time that she retire to a convent. Suzanne and Figaro agree that chance is the best insurer of good fortune. The Countess impersonates Suzanne to win back the Count. Suzanne impersonates the Countess and holds a discussion with Figaro. The men are fooled, bested. Cherubin, the page, keeps on turning up when he is supposed to have been vanquished. The playwright provided notes on the costumes and characters for the plays. Reading the plays is a laugh aloud experience.

We are doing this in opera form this Spring, and it was very helpful to read the play, especially the Barber, to get the background necessary for a complete performance. The notes and the biography also added to my understanding of the play.

These two plays have been made very famous by the two operas by Rossini and Mozart. However the plays seem to be relatively unknown. Of the two plays "The Marriage of Figaro" is the better of the two. I would also like add a criticism of the movie Amadeus. In the movie Salieri comments on the ending of the opera based on the play in a way that seems to imply that Mozart deserves all the credit. In fact the opera is very faithful to the play. Mozart should get all the credit for the music of the Marriage of Figaro, but Beaumarchais deserves credit for the plot.But to get back to my point, these are two great plays that deserve to be better known. Figaro (the play) was controversial in its day as a satire about the rights of aristocrats but today the satire does not seem very harsh. Figaro the roguish main character who believes he is just as good as his master is one of the great literary characters. That is not just my opinion, it was also the opinion of the novelist Balzac.I would especially recommend this Penguin edition for the introduction which has a short biography of the adventurous life of Beaumarchais. It is a miracle he found the time to write these plays, but I am very glad that he did.