Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

The son of a clockmaker, Pierre de Beaumarchais pursued a number of trades before finding his vocation in the theater. His two masterpieces, The Barber of Seville (1775) and The Marriage of Figaro (1785), rejuvenated the somewhat dreary, sentimental theater of the time by introducing witty verbal exchanges, sharply drawn characters, and strong satire. The popularity of the two plays led to their being recast in operatic form by Rossini and Mozart respectively. In the character of Figaro, the sly playful servant who turns social hierarchy upside down, Beaumarchais gave expression to the new social transformations signaled by the French and American revolutions.