The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro (, ), K. 492, is an opera buffa (comic opera) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786. The opera's libretto is based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, "La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro" ("The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro"), which was first performed in 1784. It tells how the servants Figaro and Susanna succeed in getting married, foiling the efforts of their philandering employer Count Almaviva to seduce Susanna and teaching him a lesson in fidelity.
Der Graf von Luxemburg
Like "The Merry Widow", "Der Graf von Luxemburg " deals with the themes of how the promise of wealth affects love and marriage, and the contrast between the gaiety of Parisian society and Slavic seriousness. The libretto was written by Alfred Maria Willner, Robert Bodanzky and Leo Stein. Stein had previously worked with Lehár on his 1904 "Der Göttergatte", and Bodanzky had co-authored the librettos for both "Peter und Paul reisen ins Schlaraffenland" and "Mitislaw der Moderne". The libretto for "Der Graf von Luxemburg" was not completely new. It was a re-working of the one written by Alfred Willner and Bernhard Buchbinder twelve years earlier for Johann Strauss' unsuccessful operetta "Die Göttin der Vernunft" ("The Goddess of Reason").