FIGARO

comic character, a barber turned valet, who is the hero of Le Barbier de Sville (1775; The Barber of Seville) and Le Mariage de Figaro (1784; The Marriage of Figaro), two popular comedies of intrigue by the French dramatist Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. In the earlier play Figaro, in the role of barber, is instrumental in the successful wooing of Rosine by Count Almaviva. In the later play Figaro attempts to keep his future wife from the clutches of his master, Almaviva, who wants to seduce her. Because they portray the abuse of power by aristocrats and related themes, both plays were censored; as a result, the character of Figaro has accrued much symbolic value over the centuries. Both The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro were adapted for the opera, the former by Giovanni Paisiello in 1782 and by Gioacchino Rossini in 1816 and the latter by W.A. Mozart in 1786.