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# Pierre Augustin de Beaumarchais's play "The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro", on which the opera was based, was banned by the censors for its social criticism
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/pesa-pera-ogiusta-de-bomarshe-bezumnyi-den-ili-svadba-figaro-po-kotoroi-byla-napisana-opera-byla-zapreshchena-tsenzuroi-iz-za-sotsialno-kriticheskoi-napravlennosti/
- Published: 2024-03-24T07:00:30.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:34:13.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Aristocracy, Books, Society

Pierre Augustin de Beaumarchais's play "The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro", on which the opera was based, was banned by the censors for its social criticism. The play mocked the aristocracy and demonstrated the servant's superiority over his master. With the French Revolution approaching, such a plot was far too provocative.

Although the opera is called "The Marriage of Figaro", the principal character, musically speaking, is not Figaro. The most musical material (solo utterances, individual themes) belongs to Susanna, the barber's bride.

The premiere took place on 1 May 1786 at the Burgtheater in Vienna and at once became popular with theatre audiences. In Russia, however, the opera won genuine recognition and the affection of audiences only in 1901, when a version with a text in Russian appeared, translated by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.