The French playwright Pierre August Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) was an outstanding dramatist of his day. His plays wittily satirized the privileged classes, the professions, and the court. Beaumarchais was born Pierre August Caron in Paris on Jan....

MOZART The Marriage of Figaro * Nikolaus Hamoncourt, cond; Ildebrando d'Arcangelo (Figaro); Anna Netrebko (Susanna); Bo Skovhus (Count Almaviva); Dorothea Röschmann (Countess); Christine Schäfer (Cherubino); Marie McLaughlin (Marcellina); Franz-Josef Selig (Bartolo); Patrick Henckens (Basilio); Oliver Ringelhahn (Don Curzio); Florian Bösch (Antonio); Eva Liebau (Barbarina);...

ENO opened the second leg of its winter season with the second cast in Olivia Fuchs's new production of The Marriage of Figaro. This time round it's a tauter, more coherent show, and the 1920s country- house setting inhabited by the old Edwardian order...

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the pinata of Tuesday's Democratic debate, is turning the tables on her rivals accusing them of ganging up against her.In a cleverly edited debate video and in a campaign statement, the Clinton camp is decrying the criticism leveled against her Tuesday night...

Sometimes even the most acid-tongued critics are left speechless.Paul Potts, 36, took to the stage of a British TV talent show as an unassuming mobile phone salesman from Wales, but after stunning judges with a virtuoso rendition of the aria "Nessun Dorma," he left it...

In the following excerpt, Niklaus explains the structure of The Marriage of Figaro, commenting on past literary criticism and seeking to explain the unique importance of the play.

In the following essay, Pucci argues that Beaumarchais's use of changing values and the loss of aristocratic privilege in The Marriage of Figaro transforms the play from a mere light comedy.

In the excerpt below, Sungolowsky analyzes the plot, characters, and meaning of The Marriage of Figaro, arguing that the work is both complex and unified.