Art, literature & culture

Publication of The Marriage of Figaro

1785

The Marriage of Figaro is an opera buffa in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with a libretto in Italian by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a French play by Beaumarchais. It tells of a single day in the household of Count Almaviva, in which his valet Figaro and the maid Susanna plan to marry and outwit the count, who tries to seduce her. Beaumarchais's play had been banned in Vienna because of its criticism of the nobility, so Da Ponte removed the most overtly political passages. The opera was a success in Vienna and an even greater one in Prague, which led to the commission of Don Giovanni. Today it is one of the most performed operas in the world.

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This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 18th century.