Commedia per musica in four acts. Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte based on Le mariage de Figaro ou La folle journée (1784) by Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. First performed on 1 May 1786 at the Burgtheater in Vienna. First performed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu on 2 February 1916.

Le nozze di Figaro has a distinctly pre-Revolutionary flavour.  But over and above its ideological aspects and brilliant social satire — which needed the blessing of Emperor Joseph II, the illustrated despot par excellence —, Da Ponte and Mozart created a matchless allegory of the quest for happiness. All the leading figures yearn for love, in one form or another: sexual desire (the Count and Cherubino), nostalgia for lost happiness (the Countess), or loving family ties (Figaro and Susanna). In each case, however, love is menaced from the outset by mistrust and betrayal. Da Ponte defined this opera as a commedia per musica, not an opera buffa, and indeed both the text and music go well beyond the usual stereotypes. The characters are endowed with unprecedented psychological depth, while the score includes many features from opera seria, among them the arias, which express a sadness far-removed from the comic tradition.