biography
| name: |
Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron de
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| |
originally Pierre Augustin Caron
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pronunciation:
[bohmah(r)shay]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1732–99)
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| biography:
| Comic playwright, born in Paris, France. He married the wealthy widow of a court official, whereupon he assumed the title by which he was known thereafter. He is best known for his two satirical comedies (considered politically subversive in their time), Le Barbier de Séville (1775, The Barber of Seville) and La Folle Journée ou le mariage de Figaro (1784, The Marriage of Figaro). Both are still popular plays in France, but in England are chiefly known through Mozart's and Rossini's operatic adaptations. The Revolution cost Beaumarchais his fortune, and, suspected of an attempt to sell arms to the émigrés, he had to take refuge in Holland and England (1793). |
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