Beaumarchais in Seville An Intermezzo Hugh Thomas

In 1764-65, the irrepressible playwright Beaumarchais travelled to Madrid, where he immersed himself in the life and society of the day. Inspired by the places he had seen and the people he had met, Beaumarchais returned home to create "The Barber of Seville" and "The Marriage of Figaro", plays that became the basis for the operas by Rossini and Mozart that continue to delight audiences today. This book is a lively and original account of Beaumarchais' visit to Madrid (he never went to Seville) and a recreation of the society that fired his imagination.Drawing on Beaumarchais' letters and commentaries, translated into English for the first time, Hugh Thomas investigates the full range of the playwright's activities in Madrid. He focuses particular attention on short plays that Beaumarchais attended and by which he was probably influenced, and he probes the inspirations for such widely recognized characters as the barber-valet Figaro, the lordly Count Almaviva, and the beautiful but deceived Rosine. Not neglecting Beaumarchais' many other pursuits (ranging from an endeavour to gain a contract for selling African slaves to an attempt to place his mistress as a spy in the bed of King Charles III), Lord Thomas provides a highly entertaining view of a vital moment in Madrid's history and in the creative life of the energetic Beaumarchais.

 Read more about Hugh Thomas, historian and author.

"'Beaumarchais' Spanish adventure is related with wit and high spirits by the distinguished historian Hugh Thomas.' Antonia Fraser 'Hugh Thomas has written a brief, witty and enlightening account of the origins of those two key works: The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. He brings to life Beaumarchais in the glittering epoch of profound frivolity before the French Revolution ruined all.' Paul Johnson 'a delightfully readable and engrossing book, whose main intention is to relate the extraordinary circumstances that led a former watchmaker to write two of the most influential and popular plays of the eighteenth century.' Michael Jacobs, Literary Review '... a learned and lively book.' Raymond Carr, The Spectator 'This book is tremendous fun to read. It is nourished, moreover, by an extensive root system: Beaumarchais's plays, personal correspondence and memoirs, together with meticulous familiarity with earlier biographies of the dramatist, contemporary travellers' accounts, and scholarly historical work about eighteenth-century Spain.' Eric Southworth, Times Literary Supplement"