The Marriage of Figaro (French: Le Mariage de Figaro or La Folle Journée) is a comedy in five acts, by Pierre Beaumarchais written in 1778. Beaumarchais Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (January 24, 1732 – May 17-18, 1799) was a watch-maker, inventor, musician, invalid, fugitive, spy, politician, architect, arms-merchant, publisher, and revolutionary (both French and American). ...

The play was first performed officially on 27 April 1784, after having been censored for many years. It is considered as an early indication of the French Revolution in it's denouncement of the privileges of the nobility. In it, Beaumarchais uses the main characters from The Barber of Seville, the barber Figaro, Count Almaviva and Rosine, who in this play is now the Countess. Bartholo, the other principle character of The Barber of Seville has a secondary role. The play was turned into an opera by Mozart called Le nozze di Figaro. The period of the French Revolution is very important in the history of France and the world. ... The Barber of Seville is a theatre play by Beaumarchais, written in 1775, and originally entitled Le Barbier de S̩ville in French. ... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 РDecember 5, 1791) was one of the most significant and influential of all composers of Western classical music. ... The Marriage of Figaro (Italian: Le nozze di Figaro) is an opera buffa (comic opera) composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Beaumarchais, Le mariage de Figaro (1784). ...

Summary

Figaro enters into Count Almaviva's service (he is both the Count's valet and the concierge of his castle), and is engaged to Suzanne, who is the Countess's head chambermaid. The Count, who becomes bored with his with his wife searches out amorous adventures. Attracted by Suzanne's charms he wishes to revive the right of primae noctis so that he can take advantage of the young bride before the consummation of her marriage. Aided by the unscrupulous Bazile the Count makes more and more obvious advances towards Suzanne, who in turn reveals everything to Figaro and the Countess, forcing the Count to face this "coalition" which end up defeating him. Having been made to look ridiculous at a date, which was in fact a trap he throws himself at his wife's feet to beg her forgiveness. While Figaro, end up marring Suzanne.

The plot is complicated by the intervention of several minor characters, notably Chérubin, the young page, madly in love with the countess, as well as Marceline, who tells the Count that Figaro is in fact marrying her, (which is impossible, as we learn that she is in fact Figaro's mother) Å’dipus and the Sphinx, from an 1879 illustration from Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church Oedipus (Greek Οἰδίπους, Oidipous, swollen-foot; rarely Οἰδίπος; Latin Oedipus) or Å’dipus was the mythical king of Thebes, son of Laius and Jocasta, who, unknowingly, killed his father and married his mother. ...

One of the defining moments of the play is Figaro's monologue (Act V, Scene iii)

Because you are a Lord, you believe yourself to be a genius!... Nobility, fortune, rank, places; all these things create such pride! What have you done to deserve these goods? You have had the fortune of birth, and nothing more...

The monologue gave rise to Figaro's famous aria "se vuol ballar, Signor Contino."