In 1772, Beaumarchais wrote his first version of The Barber of Seville as a comic opera, complete with Spanish airs, or melodies, he had collected on his trip to Spain. When the play was rejected by the Comédie-Italienne, a group of Italian actors playing in France, Beaumarchais decided to transform it into a play for the Comédie Français, France's national theater. The play was set to be staged in early 1774 when rumors started that it included allusions to earlier legal run-ins Beaumarchais had had with a French judge. The production was forbidden. Finally, in February 1775, the play was mounted as a comedy in five acts. To the delight of Beaumarchais's numerous enemies, the French audience found the play too long and drawn out. Beaumarchais's friend Gudin de la Brunellerie (quoted in John Richetti's "Pierre- Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais") explained part of...