Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 129 mm x 196 mm
Reihe: Oxford World's Classics
The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro, The Guilty Mother
Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 129 mm x 196 mm
Reihe: Oxford World's Classics
ISBN: 978-0-19-280413-6
Verlag: Oxford University Press
Key Features:
The only English translation of all three Figaro plays in one volume.
- Printing the trilogy together allows the reader to follow the development of the characters.
- Popularity of the first two plays as the sources of operas by Mozart and Rossini.
- Introduction surveys Beaumarchais' life, his annexation by opera, the evolution of the trilogy and how it reflects his growing technique as a playwright and the evolution of his humanitarianism.
- Explanatory notes clarify references in the text and explain cultural differences.
- Reputation of David Coward as author and translator, and past winner of the Scott Moncrieff Prize for translation.
Description:
The Barber of Seville * The Marriage of Figaro * The Guilty Mother
Eighteenth-century France produced only one truly international theatre star, Beaumarchais, and only one name, Figaro, to put with Don Quixote or D'Artagnan in the ranks of popular myth. But who was Figaro? He was quickly appropriated by Mozart and Rossini who tamed the original impertinent, bustling servant for their own purposes. On the eve of the French Revolution Figaro was seen as a threat to the establishment: Louis XIV banned The Marriage of Figaro because 'the Bastille would have to be pulled down before such a play could be staged.'
Was the barber of Seville really a threat to aristocratic heads, or a bourgeois individualist like his creator? The three plays in which he plots and schemes chronicle the slide of the ancien régime into revolution but also chart the growth of Beaumarchais' humanitarianism. They are also exuberant theatrical entertainments, masterpieces of skill, invention, and social satire which helped shape the direction of French theatre for a hundred years. This lively new translation catches all the zest and energy of the most famous valet in French literature.
Competition:
The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro by Beaumarchais, tr. John Wood. Published 1964 £8.99. Publisher: Penguin. Comments: An ageing edition, nearly 40 years old, and contains only two of the three Figaro plays.
Zielgruppe
Students and readers of French literature, drama, actors and directors, music (as the basis for the operas by Mozart and Rossini), Beaumarchais
