Droit du seigneur
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Droit du seigneur, also known as jus primae noctis or prima nocta, was a supposed legal right in medieval Europe, allowing feudal lords to have sexual relations with any female subject, particularly on her wedding night.
Vasily Polenov: Le droit du Seigneur (1874); artist's interpretation of an old man bringing his young daughters to their feudal lord
Voltaire, who in 1762 was the first person to use the term droit du seigneur
Hector Boece, the first historian to record the droit du seigneur, in 1527
Image: Jules Arsene Garnier Le Droit Du Seigneur
The Marriage of Figaro
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The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492, is a commedia per musica 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 the 1784 stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro. 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.
Act 1: Cherubino hides behind Susanna's chair as the Count arrives.
Libretto 1786