Pierre Beaumarchais
In 1786, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed an opera, "Le Nozze di Figaro", based on "The Marriage of Figaro", with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte based on the play. Several composers including Paisiello in 1782 wrote operas based on "The Barber of Seville". Rossini's 1816 version is his most successful work and still often performed. In 1966, Darius Milhaud composed an opera, "La mère coupable", based on "The Guilty Mother".
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").