Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

French playwright (1732-1799), born and lived all his life in Paris. He was the music teacher of the daughters of Louis XV and the founder of the Societe des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques (1777), through which he achieved, with the advent of the French Revolution, the first establishment of authors' rights. His major works were presented at the Comedie-Francaise: "Eugenie," a drama in five acts, 1767, "Les Deux Amis, ou le Negociant de Lyon," a drama in five acts, 1770, "Tarare," a melodrama in five acts, 1787, "Trilogie de Figaro, ou Le roman de la famille Almaviva": "Le Barbier de Seville ou la Precaution inutile" ("The Barber of Seville"), a comedy in five acts, 1775, which inspired Rossini's opera in 1815, "La Folle journee, ou le Mariage de Figaro" ("The Marriage of Figaro"), a comedy in five acts, 1785, which inspired Mozart's opera "Le Nozze di Figaro," with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, in 1786, "L'Autre Tartuffe, ou la Mere coupable," a moral drama in five acts, 1792, "Memoires," memoirs in sheets, 1799.