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The realm of eighteenth-century French society represents a distinct historical epoch in the course of world events. During this time, France was defined by a political and social order known as the ancien régime. This order was established by the country's status as an absolute monarchy. Throughout his reign (1643-1715), King Louis XIV strengthened royal power by fostering the divine right of kings. He did so by building the lavish palace of Versailles near Paris and bringing French nobles to live there with the royal family, thereby turning any potential adversaries into allies through the allurement of the luxurious life at court. Thus, the French royalty and nobility became firmly ensconced at the pinnacle of a strict social hierarchy, which was distinguished by a widening division between the upper and lower classes. After the death of Louis XIV, there was hope for some type of social reform to rectify the inegalitarian class structure. The reign of Louis VX (1715-1774) brought no change to France's order, however, and the power of the aristocracy only continued to grow. It was from this skewed society that Beaumarchais emerged.
The French writer Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) is best known as the creator of the character of Figaro, who is featured in his famous series of three plays. Often known as the Figaro trilogy, the theatrical triptych is comprised of Le Barbier de Séville (1775), La Folle Journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (1784), and La Mère coupable, ou l'autre Tartuffe (1792). These plays contain Beaumarchais's distinctive sociopolitical criticism of the eighteenth-century society in which he lived. The playwright struggled with censors to have these works published and performed, and his views were often censored in theatrical performance. Furthermore, his views were frequently censored in operatic adaptations of these works that were produced during his lifetime. Arguably, Gioachino Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816) is perhaps the most famous opera based on Beaumarchais's Figaro, but it premiered seventeen years after his death. And it was not until the mid-twentieth century that a composer attempted to turn the problematic third Figaro play into an opera (Darius Milhaud's La Mère coupable in 1966). Therefore, the focus of this article is the sociopolitical criticism seen in Beaumarchais's Le Barbier de Séville...