Julie d'Aubigny was born in 1673 to Gaston
d'Aubigny, a secretary to Louis de Lorraine-Guise, comte d'Armagnac, the Master
of the Horse for King Louis XIV. Her father trained the court pages, and so his
daughter learned dancing, reading, drawing, and fencing alongside the pages,
and dressed as a boy from an early age. By the age of fourteen, she became a
mistress of the Count d'Armagnac who had her married to Sieur de Maupin of
Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Soon after the wedding, her husband received an
administrative position in the south of France ,
but she stayed in Paris .
Around 1687, Madame de Maupin became
involved with an assistant fencing master named Sérannes. When
Lieutenant-General of Police Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie tried to apprehend
Sérannes for killing a man in an illegal duel, the pair fled the city to
Marseille.
On the road south, Madame de Maupin and
Sérannes made a living by giving fencing exhibitions and singing in taverns and
at local fairs. While travelling and performing in these impromptu shows,
Maupin dressed in male clothing but did not conceal her gender. On arrival in
Marseille, she joined the opera company run by Pierre Gaultier, singing under
her maiden name.
Eventually, she grew bored of Sérannes and
became involved with a young woman. When the girl's parents put her away in the
Visitandines convent in Avignon ,
Maupin followed, entering the convent as a postulant. In order to run away with
her new love, she stole the body of a dead nun, placed it in the bed of her
lover, and set the room on fire to cover their escape. Their affair lasted for
three months before the young lady returned to her family. Maupin was charged
in absentia—as a male—with kidnapping, body snatching, arson, and failing to
appear before the tribunal. The sentence was death by fire.
Maupin left for Paris and again earned her living by singing.
Near Poitiers , she met an old actor named
Maréchal who began to teach her until his alcoholism got worse and he sent her
on her way to Paris .
In Villeperdue, still wearing men's
clothing, she was insulted by a young nobleman. They fought a duel and she
drove her blade through his shoulder. The next day, she asked about his health
and found out he was Louis-Joseph d'Albert Luynes, son of the Duke of Luynes.
Later, one of his companions came to offer d'Albert's apologies. She went to
his room and subsequently they became lovers and, later, lifelong friends.
After Count d'Albert recovered and had to
return to his military unit, Maupin continued to Rouen . There she met Gabriel-Vincent
Thévenard, another singer, and began a new affair with him. They continued
together towards Paris
in the hope of joining the Paris Opéra. In the Marais, she contacted Count
d'Armagnac for help against the sentence hanging over her. He persuaded the
king to grant her a pardon and allow her to sing with the Opéra.
The Paris Opéra hired Thévenard in 1690,
but initially refused her. She befriended an elderly singer, Bouvard, and he
and Thévenard convinced Jean Nicolas Francin, master of the king's household,
to accept her into the company. She debuted as Pallas Athena in Cadmus et
Hermione by Jean-Baptiste Lully the same year. She performed regularly with the
Opéra, first singing as a soprano, and later in her more natural contralto
range. The Marquis de Dangeau wrote in his journal of a performance by Maupin
given at Trianon of Destouches' Omphale in 1701 that hers was "the most beautiful
voice in the world".
In Paris ,
and later in Brussels ,
she performed under the name Mademoiselle de Maupin - singers were addressed as
'mademoiselle' whether or not they were married.
Due to Mademoiselle de Maupin's beautiful
voice, her acting skill, and her androgynous appearance, she became quite
popular with the audience, although her relationship with her fellow actors and
actresses was sometimes tempestuous. She famously beat the singer Louis Gaulard
Dumesny after he pestered the women members of the troupe, and a legendary duel
of wits with Thévenard was the talk of Paris .
She also fell in love with Fanchon Moreau, another singer who was the mistress
of the Grand Dauphin, and tried to commit suicide when she was rejected.
Her Paris
career was interrupted around 1695, when she kissed a young woman at a society
ball and was challenged to duels by three different noblemen. She beat them
all, but fell afoul of the king's law that forbade duels in Paris . She fled to Brussels to wait for calmer times. There, she
was briefly the mistress of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria.
While in Brussels , Mademoiselle de Maupin appeared at
the Opéra du Quai au Foin from November 1697 to July 1698, after which she
returned to the Paris Opéra to replace the retiring Marie Le Rochois. She and
her friend d'Albert were both in trouble with the law over the years: he for
yet another fatal duel, and she for beating up her landlord.
Until 1705, La Maupin sang in new operas by
Pascal Collasse, André Cardinal Destouches, and André Campra. In 1702, André
Campra composed the role of Clorinde in Tancrède specifically for her
bas-dessus (contralto) range. She sang for the court at Versailles on a number of occasions, and again
performed in many of the Opéra's major productions. She appeared for the last
time in La Vénitienne by Michel de La Barre (1705).
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