Ari Reviews: The Figaro Trilogy by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, David Coward (Translator)

The Figaro Trilogy caught my eye when I was doing some browsing in the Comcat Catalog about music/operas and I came across this title. Beaumarchais’s book discusses the history and social background of the 18^th century world behind the plays: The Marriage of Figaro, The Barber of Seville, and The Guilty Mother. I never knew about the Guilty Mother in the series so it was surprising to learn there was a part three of the Figaro Trilogy after the Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. The book was well written and had helpful introductions to each play which gave me more of an appreciation of the plays. I saw the Barber of Seville last year in October in Boston which was a very amazing performance by the Boston Lyric Opera. I enjoyed reading the whole play along with the others in the book.  The plays were funny, excellent, and satirical.  It had a lot of helpful footnotes for background information in the text. The translations were very poetic and fluid.  It was a very fast read and could not put it down! As a music lover of opera and plays this book I definitely plan on buying to add to my collection.  It gave me a great appreciation of music history and the background of the Figaro Trilogy and took me into Beaumarchais’s world. It helped me understand more of the storyline of the plays. I highly would recommend this book to music lovers, music students, and anyone who is interested in music history or plays.