Figaro Systems grew out of a conversation in 1992 among three opera colleagues: Patrick Markle, at that time Production Director of The
Santa Fe Opera, Geoffrey Webb, Design Engineer for the
Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and Ronald Erkman, then a technician for the Met. At that time, opera houses had two options for the display of libretto and dialogue subtitles: projection onto a large screen above the stage or onto smaller screens throughout the theatre. Typically, the translation was in a single language. The
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 had recently been enacted; Markle was trying to solve the problem of venues which lacked accessibility to patrons with disabilities, including the profoundly
deaf. Markle, Webb, and Erkman devised the first
prototype of a personal seatback titling device and
John Crosby, then General Director of The
Santa Fe Opera, saw its potential for opera patrons. Markle, Webb, and Erkman were further reinforced by their understanding of technology's role in remediating the physical barriers people encounter, worldwide, which frustrate or prevent their access to the visual performing arts. Markle, Webb, and Erkman applied for and were granted
patents for their invention. Philanthropist and investor
Alberto Vilar counted Figaro Systems among the companies in which he was a majority shareholder. He donated the company's
electronic libretto system to European venues including the
Royal Opera House in
London, La Scala's
Teatro degli Arcimboldi in
Milan, Italy,
Gran Teatre del Liceu in
Barcelona, Spain, and the
Wiener Staatsoper in
Wien, Austria. As a consequence of his failures to pay promised donations, most of these companies lost money. In 2005 the Met charged the New Mexico company with unlawfully using its name in advertising promoting its "Simultext, system which defendant claims can display a simultaneous translation of an opera as it occurs on a stage and that defendant represented that its system is installed at the Met." ==Products and technology==