The Play La Folle Journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais did not intend to complete a second play about Count Almaviva and the peasants under his reign. In his preface to Le Barbier de Seville (1773), the first play in his Figaro trilogy and the prequel to La Folle Journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro, Beaumarchais freely imagined what might have occurred if the comedy continued into a sixth act, with Dr. Bartolo and Marcellina discovering—upon the revelation of Figaro’s spatula-shaped birthmark—that the titular barber is indeed their long-lost son kidnapped by “gypsies” as a child. According to the playwright himself, the French nobleman Prince de Conti was so taken by this suggestion that he urged Beaumarchais to continue Figaro’s story in another play. Thus, Le Mariage de Figaro was born.  

But it was a notoriously difficult pregnancy. In 1782, Beaumarchais presented a manuscript of the play to King Louis XVI, who refused to let it be performed publicly. Soon thereafter, the intrepid playwright went about organizing a series of private readings of the play throughout Paris. In response to the work’s popularity, Louis XVI conceded to a private performance at the palace of Versailles in the summer of 1783. Three hours before curtain, however, the show was canceled. A few months later, the king did ultimately allow another private performance at the country house of another French nobleman, the Comte de Vaudreuil.

Not satisfied with this result, the ever-enterprising Beaumarchais set up a series of semi-public meetings with official censors, defending the play and incorporating their suggestions into a revised version. Finally, the play had its premiere at the Comédie- Française in Paris in 1784. The work caused such an uproar that three audience members were crushed to death by the crowd of 5,000 spectators, many of whom arrived at 8AM and entered the auditorium at noon for an evening performance. Public stagings of the play were subsequently banned in Vienna—where Mozart’s opera ultimately premiered—by the direction of Emperor Joseph II.

Lorenzo Da Ponte significantly condensed Beaumarchais’s five-act comedy to create the libretto for Le Nozze di Figaro, going so far as to refer to his work as an “extract.” He reduced the cast from 16 to 11 characters, two of which were doubled in the premiere staging (representing four characters total). Due to the controversy surrounding the play, Da Ponte trimmed much of the overtly political content, including several pointed philosophical speeches by Figaro and a heated exchange between him and the Count in Act III. Elsewhere, the librettist removed an entire trial scene where Marcellina’s contract obliging Figaro to marry her is adjudicated (with the verdict in her favor).

Le Mariage de Figaro does, however, include several musical scenes. In Act IV, the leadup to the wedding has a fandango (a type of Spanish dance) and a duet; the play concludes with a popular vaudeville song; and Cherubino’s performance for the Countess, immortalized by Mozart as the aria “Voi che sapete,” occurs in Act II of the play.

Act I

A manor house near Seville, the 1930s.

In a storeroom that they have been allocated, Figaro and Susanna, servants to the Count and Countess, are preparing for their wedding. Figaro is furious when he learns from his bride that the Count has tried to seduce her. He’s determined to have revenge on his lord. Dr. Bartolo appears with his former housekeeper, Marcellina, who is equally determined to marry Figaro. She has a contract: Figaro must marry her or repay the money he borrowed from her. When Marcellina runs into Susanna, the two rivals exchange insults. Susanna returns to her room, and the Count’s young page Cherubino rushes in. Finding Susanna alone, he speaks of his love for all the women in the house, particularly the Countess. When the Count appears, again trying to seduce Susanna, Cherubino hides. The Count then conceals himself when Basilio, the music teacher, approaches. Basilio tells Susanna that everyone knows Cherubino has a crush on the Countess. Outraged, the Count steps forward, but he becomes even more enraged when he discovers Cherubino and realizes that the boy has overheard his attempts to seduce Susanna. He chases Cherubino into the great hall, encountering Figaro, who has assembled the entire household to sing the praises of their lord. Put on the spot, the Count is forced to bless the marriage of Figaro and Susanna. To spite them and to silence Cherubino, he orders the boy to join the army without delay. Figaro sarcastically sends Cherubino off into battle.  

Act II

In her bedroom, the Countess mourns the loss of love in her life. Encouraged by Figaro and Susanna, she agrees to set a trap for her husband: They will send Cherubino, disguised as Susanna, to a rendezvous with the Count that night. At the same time, Figaro will send the Count an anonymous note suggesting that the Countess is having an assignation with another man. Cherubino arrives, and the two women lock the door before dressing him in women’s clothes. When Susanna steps into an adjoining room, the Count knocks and is annoyed to find the door locked. Cherubino hides himself in a closet, and the Countess lets her husband in. When there’s a sudden noise from behind the door, the Count is skeptical of his wife’s story that Susanna is in there. Taking his wife with him, he leaves to get tools to force the door. Meanwhile, Susanna, who has reentered the room unseen and observed everything, helps Cherubino escape through the window before taking his place in the closet. When the Count and Countess return, both are astonished when Susanna emerges. Figaro arrives to begin the wedding festivities, but the Count questions him about the note he received. Figaro successfully eludes questioning until the gardener, Antonio, bursts in, complaining that someone has jumped from the window. Figaro improvises quickly, feigning a limp and pretending that it was he who jumped. As soon as Antonio leaves, Bartolo, Marcellina, and Basilio appear, putting their case to the Count and holding the contract that obliges Figaro to marry Marcellina. Delighted, the Count declares that Figaro must honor his agreement and that his wedding to Susanna will be postponed.

Act III

Later that day in the great hall, Susanna leads on the Count with promises of a rendezvous that night. He is overjoyed but then overhears Susanna conspiring with Figaro. In a rage, he declares that he will have revenge. The Countess, alone, recalls her past happiness. Marcellina, accompanied by a lawyer, Don Curzio, demands that Figaro pay his debt or marry her at once. Figaro replies that he can’t marry without the consent of his parents for whom he’s been searching for years, having been abducted as a baby. When he reveals a birthmark on his arm, Marcellina realizes that he is her long-lost son, fathered by Bartolo. Arriving to see Figaro and Marcellina embracing, Susanna thinks her fiancé has betrayed her, but she is pacified when she learns the truth. The Countess is determined to go through with the conspiracy against her husband, and she and Susanna compose a letter to him confirming the meeting with Susanna that evening in the garden. Cherubino, now dressed as a girl, appears with his sweetheart, Barbarina, the daughter of Antonio. Antonio, who has found Cherubino’s cap, also arrives and reveals the young man. The Count is furious to discover that Cherubino has disobeyed him and is still in the house. Barbarina punctures his anger, explaining that the Count, when he attempted to seduce her, promised her anything she desired. Now, she wants to marry Cherubino, and the Count reluctantly agrees. The household assembles for Figaro and Susanna’s wedding. While dancing with the Count, Susanna hands him the note, sealed with a pin, confirming their tryst that evening.

Act IV

At night in the garden, Barbarina despairs that she has lost the pin the Count has asked her to take back to Susanna as a sign that he’s received her letter. When Figaro and Marcellina appear, Barbarina tells them about the planned rendezvous between the Count and Susanna. Thinking that his bride is unfaithful, Figaro curses all women. He hides when Susanna and the Countess arrive, dressed in each other’s clothes. Alone, Susanna sings of love. She knows that Figaro is listening and enjoys making him think that she’s about to betray him with the Count. She then conceals herself—just in time to see Cherubino try to seduce the disguised Countess. When the Count arrives looking for Susanna, he chases the boy away. Figaro, by now realizing what is going on, joins in the joke and declares his passion for Susanna in her Countess disguise. The Count returns to discover Figaro with his wife, or so he thinks, and explodes with rage. At that moment, the real Countess steps forward and reveals her identity. Ashamed, the Count asks her pardon. Ultimately, she forgives him, and the entire household celebrates the day’s happy ending.

1732
Pierre-Auguste Caron de Beaumarchais is born in Paris.

1749
Lorenza Da Ponte is born in Vittorio Veneto, Italy, in the foothills north of Venice.

1756
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Salzburg, Austria, on January 27. He is one of two surviving children of Leopold Mozart, a composer in the service of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg.

1759
Wolfgang’s astonishing musical abilities are clear from a young age. He begins playing harpsichord at age three. At four, he composes a harpsichord concerto that is declared “unplayably difficult” by his father’s musician friends—until the child sits down at the harpsichord and plays it. And at six, he begins to teach himself violin. 

1762
A prodigal composer and keyboardist at seven years old, Mozart performs for the Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna. Over the next 11 years, the Mozart family tours throughout Europe, performing for members of the royalty and nobility.

1767
Mozart completes his first full-length dramatic work, Apollo et Hyacinthus, based on a Latin text drawn from Ovid. It is first performed in Salzburg on May 13.

1775
Beaumarchais’s play Le Barbier de Séville, the first in his Figaro trilogy, has its first performance at the Comédie- Française in Paris. The premiere is a flop, but Beaumarchais’s revised version receives great acclaim. 

1781
Mozart relocates to Vienna, seeking to make his living as an independent composer and performer in the culturally rich Habsburg capital, rather than solely under contract to a wealthy patron or the church. This same year, the poet and former priest Lorenzo Da Ponte moves to Vienna, having been banished from Venice because of his liberal politics and illicit involvement with several married women. In Vienna, he attracts the notice of Emperor Joseph II, who appoints Da Ponte as the poet to the court theater. His libretti for Mozart, Antonio Salieri, and Vicente Martín y Soler stand as landmark achievements of Italian opera buffa in Vienna.

1783
Beaumarchais organizes private readings of the second play in his Figaro trilogy, La Folle Journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro, throughout Paris. In response, Louis XVI—who had previously forbidden public presentation of the play—schedules a performance at the palace of Versailles, but it gets canceled three hours before curtain.

1784
After Beaumarchais conducts semi-public meetings with official censors and further revises the play, Le Mariage de Figaro premieres at the Comédie- Française in Paris. The work causes such an uproar that three audience members are crushed to death by the crowd of 5,000 spectators, many of whom arrived at 8AM and entered the auditorium at noon for an evening performance.

1786
Le Nozze di Figaro, the first of Mozart’s collaborations with Da Ponte, premieres on May 1 in Vienna. Following a very successful run of performances in Prague, Pasquale Bondini, the Italian impresario of the city’s National Theater, commissions Mozart to compose a new opera, which will become Don Giovanni, Mozart and Da Ponte’s second collaboration.

1791
Mozart falls ill on November 22 and dies on December 5, likely from rheumatic fever. He leaves his wife with enormous debts and is buried in an unmarked grave in the St. Marx Cemetery, located outside Vienna’s city walls.

1805
Lorenzo Da Ponte immigrates to America, where he founds the department of Italian literature at Columbia University (1825) and builds the first theater in the United States dedicated entirely to opera (1833).