[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mariagefigaro.jpg]]

A comic, SitCom-like play by Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais ("Le Mariage de Figaro" in the original French), adapted into an {{opera}} by composer Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte ("Le Nozze di Figaro" in the original Italian). The story is about the attempts of Figaro (Count Almaviva's manservant and formerly ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville'') and Susanna (the Countess's maid) to get married. It being a RomanticComedy, there are many obstacles:

* Count Almaviva wants to seduce Susanna, much to the dismay of both Susanna (who is happily engaged to Figaro) and his wife, Countess Rosina. To achieve this, he is threatening to reinstate the feudal "DroitDuSeigneur" custom, which gives the local lord first dibs with a woman on her wedding night. Rosina and Susanna, who are close friends, conspire to expose his lechery.
* Figaro is in debt to a middle-aged woman named Marcellina; she's trying to force him to marry her in lieu of payment. She has the aid of her former employer Dr. Bartolo, who had been competing for Rosina's hand himself back in the day (and got her dowry as a consolation prize), and is also helped by the gossip-mongering music teacher Don Basilio.
* Cherubino, a teenaged page boy (always played by a girl), is also trying to get his hands on Susanna, on his godmother the Countess, on the gardener's daughter Barbarina, and basically on any other female within a 500-yard radius. Ah, young hormones. Susanna and Rosina try to weaponize him by... dressing him up as a girl. This is mostly PlayedForLaughs, but the Count is dangerously territorial, so it can go MoodWhiplash at times.

Of course, since this is ''comic'' opera, everything works out in the end. (And yes, it's still hilarious today, if it's played right.)

The play is a sequel to Beaumarchais's ''The Barber of Seville'', which tells how Figaro entered the Count's employ after helping overcome the difficulties surrounding the Count's own attempt to MarryForLove. ''The Barber of Seville'' was also adapted into opera several times, most notably 30 years ''after'' ''The Marriage of Figaro'', by a different composer (Rossini) and a different lyricist. Essentially it is a ContinuationFic in the other chronological direction. As mentioned on the ''Barber'' page, there is a third play in the series, but nobody cares about it anymore.

''Figaro'' was unusual for being essentially a LowerDeckEpisode: the OfficialCouple aren't nobility or anywhere near the top of the power structure. Of course, this makes up for the fact that Figaro wasn't the star of ''Barber'', even though it's ''named'' after him.
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!! This opera provides examples of:
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: In the play, when Suzanne shows up at Figaro's trial with the money to buy him out of his marriage contract, she explains that she borrowed the money from the Countess. In the opera, the explanation is omitted, and the scene is followed by an aria where the Countess specifically mentions that she hasn't talked to Susanna yet. Some productions fix this by moving the Countess's aria to before the trial scene.
* AdaptationNameChange: The opera Italianizes most of the names (Suzanne becoming Susanna, for example) and renames a couple of minor characters, with Don Guzman Brid'oison becoming Don Curzio and Fanchette becoming Barbarina.
* AttractiveBentGender: Cherubino to Susanna and the Countess, just for starters, and with a side of RecursiveCrossDressing (and by extension, implicit LesYay).
* AristocratsAreEvil: Played straight with the Count (though he's more of a {{Jerkass}} / JerkWithAHeartOfGold than outright evil), but averted with the Countess. This was a rather daring plot point for its day, as not only is the Count clearly in the wrong, he's [[spoiler:outwitted and shamed by his servants and publicly asks forgiveness]]. Pretty edgy stuff for a comedy in the days before UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution.
* BatmanGambit: The entire plot. In fact, it's arguably a [[BatmanGambit Batman]] GambitPileup.
* BedTrick: The Countess goes to an assignation with the Count in Susanna's clothing. It doesn't play out, though--Susanna is also wearing the Countess's clothing. The Count, not recognizing his wife, starts romancing her. Figaro, seeing only the clothes, gets mad.
* BetaCouple: The Count and his Countess.
** Gamma Couple: Marcellina and [[spoiler:Dr. Bartolo]]
*** Delta Couple: Cherubino and Barbarina
* ButtMonkey: The Count... except he deserves it.
* TheCasanova: What the Count aspires to be. Susanna [[CasanovaWannabe begs to differ]].
* CaptainObvious: When Curzio finds out [[spoiler:Figaro's parentage, at the would-be wedding to Marcellina]], he observes, "[[spoiler:He's his father? She's his mother?]] The wedding cannot continue!"
* CheaterGetsCheatedOn: Count Almaviva cheats on his wife left and right but grows livid when he suspects she might be unfaithful to him herself (every time in this play, it turns out to be either Operation: Jealousy or a misunderstanding, but in the sequel, she does cheat on him).
* ChekhovsGun: In their first scene in the play, Marceline and Bartholo [[AsYouKnow mention]] that they had an affair long before the events of ''The Barber of Seville'' which led to the out-of-wedlock birth of a son they gave up. The opera omits this scene and lets the ContrivedCoincidence stand on its own.
* ClosetShuffle: The infamously flirtatious servant Cherubino comes to visit Susanna to tell her all about his troubles after hitting on the count's wife. Then the count comes, and since she doesn't want to be caught alone with Cherubino, she hides him under her bed. The count is there to tell her about all the troubles he's having with Cherubino hitting on his wife (and he's there to hit on Susanna, too), and he's in the middle of this when the music teacher, Basilio, decides to come visit her to tell her all about the local news (also mainly Cherubino's exploits)- and Susanna doesn't want to get caught alone with the count, either, so she hides him as well. Of course, by the end of the song, all are discovered.
** And later, when Cherubino goes to visit the Countess, the Count comes knocking then, too, and the Countess hides him in her closet, and tells the Count it's Susanna, her maid. The Count doesn't believe her, and they argue over it until he's about to tear down the door... and then the closet opens and out walks Susanna - she and Cherubino switched, and Cherubino left through the window. Then the gardener comes to complain about window jumpers...
* CrosscastRole: Beaumarchais specified that the role of Chérubin should only be played by "a young and very pretty woman." Cherubino, his operatic counterpart, is played by a soprano or mezzo-soprano.
* DistinguishingMark: Figaro has a birthmark in the shape of a spatula.
* DoubleEntendre: The LoveLetterLunacy written to fake-seduce the Count reads as follows: "A gentle breeze will sigh this evening under the pine in the thicket... He'll understand the rest." This gets a whole ''duet'' ("Che soave zeffiretto"). Yes, Mozart seriously got away with that [[SophisticatedAsHell in a Classical opera]].
* DroitDuSeigneur: Count Almaviva, who wants to seduce Susanna, threatens to reinstate this feudal custom. Problem is, he's the one who got rid of it in the first place on his estate, which all his people think is very noble of him.
* EitherOrTitle: The full title of the play is "La Folle Journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro" ("The Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro").
* EnsembleCast: Despite Figaro getting the title role, there are no less than eleven named characters, all of whom have important dramatic parts. This makes it a popular choice to produce at music conservatories, as multiple singers get a chance to shine.
* EasilyForgiven: At the end, the Countess forgives her husband for trying to blackmail a young woman into having an affair with him. To be fair, the Count does have to [[spoiler:suffer a HumiliationConga and publicly ask {{forgiveness}} in front of all his servants]], but after that he's forgiven simply for the asking.
** With the exception of [[spoiler:''Theatre/DonGiovanni'' and ''Theatre/TheMagicFlute'']], nearly all of Mozart's Operas end with the antagonist being unconditionally forgiven of any wrong-doing (though they usually never succeed in their attempts to do wrong, anyway).
* ExactWords: Figaro, teasing an unamused Susanna, says "Give me your hand." So she slaps him. He kind of had it coming at that point.
** The Countess also has a moment of this, when the Count bangs on her bedroom door, while she is in with Cherubino.
---> '''Countess:''' I'm alone.
---> '''Count:''' Who are you talking to, then?
---> '''Countess:''' You, of course.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The events of the opera take place in a single day.
* FaceHeelTurn: Almaviva was passionately in love with Rosina in ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville''; in ''Marriage of Figaro'' he's the villain. No explanation is given for his new {{Jerkass}} persona.
* FakeFaint: In Act I, Susanna pretends to faint, apparently to get [[SmugSnake her employer]] to leave her alone. Depending on the production, this may actually backfire if the Count decides to give her some air by loosening her clothes...
* {{Farce}}: This is one of the funniest comic operas, easily capable of getting huge laughs from modern audiences. The LoveDodecahedron barely scratches the surface of all the hijinks going on. There's also {{crossdressing}}, multiple {{closet shuffle}}s, LoveLetterLunacy, {{slapstick}}, people jumping out of windows, a HumiliationConga, RelativeError, and a whole lot of DoubleEntendre....
* {{Forgiveness}}: The Count asks his wife's forgiveness in the touching aria "Contessa, perdono!"
* GeniusDitz: Barabarina is either this or ObfuscatingStupidity.
* GuileHero: Figaro. Susanna. Even the Countess and Barbarina get a bit.
* HormoneAddledTeenager: Cherubino, being in the midst of puberty, by his own admission falls in love with any woman who happens to be nearby.
--> "Every woman changes my temperature, every woman makes my heart beat faster."
* HumiliationConga: The Count, in the end, is [[spoiler: outwitted by his servants and exposed for philandering. Humiliated, he publicly asks his wife for forgiveness]].
* {{Hypocrite}}: The Count is very jealous when he suspects the Countess of being unfaithful to him, despite him actively trying to cheat on ''her''. This comes back to bite him in the HumiliationConga.
* IdiotBall: There's at least one onstage at any given time.
* IncestStandardsAreRelative: Cherubino's woes come from his growing attraction to the Countess. She isn't related to him, but as his godmother, there can be nothing between them. In the sequel play ''Theatre/TheGuiltyMother'', it turns out they did sleep together once, with Cherubino deliberately getting himself killed in battle but leaving the Countess with SomeoneToRememberHimBy.
* TheIngenue: Subverted with Barbarina's apparently artless blackmailing of the Count.
* IWantSong: Both of Cherubino's arias are this, of the most inclusive kind. The Count gets an angry version when he works out he's been fooled, Rosina gets a mournful one, and Susanna gets one where she pretends not to know Figaro's listening in.
* JealousRomanticWitness: The Count laments how horrid it would be for him to constantly see Susanna, after whom he is lusting, being happy with Figaro.
* {{Jerkass}}: The Count is being unfaithful to his wife, trying to manipulate his manservant's fiancée into bed, and going after teenaged Barbarina on the other side. His comeuppance is richly deserved.
* {{Keet}}: Cherubino. Let's see: Small, cute, colorful, hyperactive, loud, and "often subject to a crossdressing escapade"?
* KidAnova: Cherubino. This, in addition to territoriality, is probably why the Count, no slouch in TheCasanova department himself, is jealous of him.
* LovableSexManiac: Cherubino is the {{Keet}} variety.
* LoveAtFirstSight: Cherubino, with every female he sees. ''Every''. His biggest (and longest-lasting) crush is on the Countess, but he considers her "too high above him" to do more than gaze at her longingly during dinners. FirstGirlWins in more ways than one -- he marries Barbarina (the first girl he mentions), who he was caught with in her room, but in the third play, he has a child with the Countess (his first crush), who gave in at some point. Since he went off to get himself killed in a war after she told him that they can never be together again, one can safely assume that he didn't handle being a rejected LadykillerInLove too well...
* LoveDodecahedron: Right. Here we go. Figaro and Susanna are happy together and about to be married. The Count and the Countess are already married, but aren't happy. The Countess still loves the Count, but he'd rather be off reinstating the droit de seigneur with Susanna (and it's implied he's taken full advantage of this same right in the past with other women). Marcellina has a weird crush on Figaro up until she learns he's [[spoiler: her son]], and she used to have a thing going on with Bartolo, [[spoiler: which is then reignited when they find out they still have a child]]. Cherubino is a heterosexual male in the middle of puberty and so by definition [[AllMenArePerverts wants to sleep with every female he sees]], but especially Susanna, Barbarina and the Countess. Barbarina reciprocates, and the Countess reciprocates in the sequel. Bartolo still doesn't seem to have quite got over his crush on the Countess from the first play. Oh, and Barbarina also seems to have once had a thing going on with the Count, but now she only loves him "like a kitten", as opposed to her more erotic love for Cherubino. And... the Count seems to have rediscovered his feelings for his wife by the end. [[InfoDump Got all that?]]
* LoveLetterLunacy: As a part of their BatmanGambit to stop the Count's marriage veto, Countess Rosina and Susanna decide to write a fake love letter from the latter to him. Then, the Countess would show up in Susanna's clothes.
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler: The Marcellina subplot is resolved when she learns that she's Figaro's mother]], courtesy of aforementioned [[DistinguishingMark spatula]]. (His father is [[spoiler: Dr. Bartolo]].)
* MassiveMultiplayerEnsembleNumber: The septet at the end of act II, where everyone reacts to the news that Figaro is going to have to marry Marcellina.
* {{Meido}}: Susanna.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: After Marcellina discovers that [[spoiler: she's Figaro's mother]], they embrace and are reconciled. Susanna walks in while this is happening and is... upset.
** TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: this gets set straight within the next 30 measures.
** Also Cherubino being in the Countess's cupboard, and several times in the last act due to people being dressed as each other.
* OffendedByAnInferiorsSuccess: Count Almaviva lusts after Susanna, the fiancée of his servant Figaro. His aria "Vedro mentr'io sospiro" expresses his rage that a mere servant should be the one who has what he, the Count, wants.
* RecursiveCrossdressing: Cherubino, a male role being played by a woman, ends up disguised as a girl at one point. This leads to the wonderful moment of a female actor, in-character as a male, trying to walk like a woman and instead striding about manfully. In a dress. While Rosina instructs "him" in how to impersonate a female.
* RelativeError: Susanna is upset to see Figaro embracing Marcellina, who has been trying to marry him for the first few acts. A bit unusually for such a farce, this is resolved in just a few minutes: Figaro is quick to explain it's NotWhatItLooksLike; they're celebrating that [[spoiler:they've just found out Marcellina is Figaro's mother]].
* ServileSnarker: Susanna in particular, but Figaro counts as well.
* ShotgunWedding: A very belated version in the play: once Bartholo and Marceline are revealed to be Figaro's parents, his fiancée's guardian [[ParentalMarriageVeto refuses to consent]] to her marrying a bastard, and his parents are talked into marrying to allow the wedding to go forward.
* SilkHidingSteel: Rosina has gone a long way since ''The Barber of Seville''. She's gentler and more mellow, but it's mostly because of being afraid of her husband's violent jealousy. Her younger naive but crafty self is there and sometimes pops up, specially in the LoveLetterLunacy subplot.
* SleepingWithTheBoss: What the Count hopes Susanna will do.
* SoMuchForStealth: While hidden in the Countess's dressing room, Cherubino knocks something over noisily, alerting the Count to his presence.
* SpeechImpediment: In the original Beaumarchais play, the judge Don Guzman Brid'oison has a pronounced stutter. His counterpart in the opera, Don Curzio, is traditionally played this way too; Michael Kelly, who created the part, recalled that Mozart told him not to stutter during the big Act 3 sextet, but relented after Kelly managed to stutter while staying on the beat.
* SpoofAesop: Don Basilio's (often-[[CutSong cut]]) song, which concludes: "Lies Threats Rumors and Death can all be avoided if you wear an ass's skin"
* SurpriseIncest: Narrowly averted, but [[spoiler:Marcellina is on the verge of marrying Figaro before it's discovered she's his long-lost mother]]. "The wedding cannot continue" indeed!
* ThatRemindsMeOfASong: Cherubino supposedly wrote "Voi Che Sapete" as a love song for, well, [[KidAnova whichever woman he's in love with at the moment]]. He's eventually persuaded to sing it to the Countess and Susanna.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Count Almaviva compared to ''The Barber of Seville''. In that play/opera, he asks Figaro's help to (successfully) romance Rosina. Fast forward to ''Figaro'', and he's trying to steal his right hand man's fiancee. Dude, really?
* UnexplainedRecovery: In-story: Figaro pretends to have sprained his ankle from jumping out the window (when in fact it was Cherubino who had jumped). Later that day, he begins to dance. When the Count comments on his ankle, Figaro simply says "It got better!"
* TheUriahGambit: When Cherubino discovers Count Almaviva's intentions with Susanna, the Count "promotes" him to military service before Cherubino has the chance to blackmail him.
* VillainSong: The Count's ''Vedro mentr'io sospiro'' counts, as do the songs sung by Bartolo and Marcellina in Act I.
* TheVillainSucksSong:
** ''Se vuol ballare, Signor Contino''. Susanna's part of the preceding duet (''Se in casa Madama'') is also a version of this, spelling things out for Figaro with a few well-directed sneers at "il ''caro'' Contino".
** The Countess's ''Dove Sono'', or "Doesn't it just suck how my husband doesn't love me any more?"
* VolleyingInsults: Susanna and Marcellina's duet ''Via, resti servita'' is initially a stealth version of this, getting less stealthy by the strofe as Susanna gets more cutting and Marcellina loses her cool.
* WigDressAccent: As part of the BedTrick, Susanna and the Countess switch clothes to trick the Count.
* XanatosSpeedChess: The plan to fool the Count keeps changing as new stuff happens.
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