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Julie d'Aubigny (French: ; 1673–1707), better known as Mademoiselle Maupin or La Maupin, was a French opera singer.

Little is known for certain about her life beyond her position as a soloist at the Paris Opera and some of the roles she sang there; her tumultuous career and flamboyant lifestyle were the subject of gossip, rumour, and colourful stories in her own time, and inspired numerous fictional and semi-fictional portrayals afterwards. Her life loosely inspired the titular character of Théophile Gautier's 1835 novel, Mademoiselle de Maupin, in which she employs multiple disguises to seduce a young man and his mistress. Due to her relationships with men and women, some modern-day sources refer to d'Aubigny as bisexual or queer. Closer to her own lifetime, she was referred to in 1775 as "the new Sappho," and it was said that her "singular taste... for persons of her sex was so lively, that she exposed herself to frequent contempt on their part.”

Julie d'Aubigny was born in 1673 to Gaston d'Aubigny (1640–1698), a secretary to Louis de Lorraine-Guise, comte d'Armagnac, the Master of the Horse for King Louis XIV. That year, in 1687, the Count d'Armagnac arranged for her to marry one Monsieur Maupin of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and she became Madame de Maupin.

Also around 1687, d'Aubigny became involved with an assistant fencing master named Séranne. During this period, d'Aubigny 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, d'Aubigny dressed in traditionally male clothing. During this time, d'Aubigny began her first sapphic relationship with a young woman. The young woman's parents sent their daughter away to a convent in Avignon, possibly the Visitandines convent, to prevent the two from contacting each other. d'Aubigny followed, entering the convent as a postulant. D'Aubigny was charged in absentia—as a male—with kidnapping, body snatching, arson, and failing to appear before the tribunal and sentenced to death by burning. D'Aubigny left for Paris and again earned her living by singing. At this time d'Aubigny sought professional singing lessons from a middle-aged musician and actor named Maréchal who, impressed by her talent, encouraged her to apply to the Paris Opera.

This was the point at which she first became known as "La Maupin"; French custom at the time referred to notable female performers by surname alone, as a stage name. In Paris, and later in Brussels, she performed under the name Mademoiselle de Maupin; by tradition, women who sang or danced with the Opera were addressed as "mademoiselle" whether or not they were married. La Maupin sang in new operas by Pascal Collasse, André Cardinal Destouches, and André Campra. After the death of her lover in 1705, Madame la Marquise de Florensac, with whom she had "dwelt in such affection they believed to be perfect", La Maupin retired from the opera and took refuge in a convent, where she is believed to have died in 1707 at the age of 33.

Théophile Gautier, when asked to write a story about d'Aubigny, instead produced the novel Mademoiselle de Maupin, published in 1835, taking aspects of the real La Maupin as a starting point.

Labie, Charles and Augier, Joanny (1839), La Maupin, ou, Une vengeance d'actrice: comedie-vaudeville en un acte Mifliez, Paris. (In French.) Dautheville, Anne-France (1995), Julie, chevalier de Maupin J.-C. Julie, chevalier de Maupin (2004), television mini-series. (In French.)

JULIE: The Musical, a musical co-produced by Le Gasp! THE ARIA OF JULIE D'AUBIGNY, the cross-dressing, sword-fighting, opera singer, wherein she seduces men and women alike, wins numerous duels, must be twice pardoned by the King, and eventually finds true love., a play by Monica Cross (2023) "Playing Queer and Performing Gender at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century: The Unconventional Life, Voice, and Body of Julie D'Aubigny Maupin." (PDF).

Quick Facts

• Julie d'Aubigny was born in 1673 to Gaston d'Aubigny (1640–1698), a secretary to Louis de Lorraine-Guise, comte d'Armagnac, the Master of the Horse for King Louis XIV.
• "Playing Queer and Performing Gender at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century: The Unconventional Life, Voice, and Body of Julie D'Aubigny Maupin." (PDF).
• Due to her relationships with men and women, some modern-day sources refer to d'Aubigny as bisexual or queer.
• Her life loosely inspired the titular character of Théophile Gautier's 1835 novel, Mademoiselle de Maupin, in which she employs multiple disguises to seduce a young man and his mistress.
• THE ARIA OF JULIE D'AUBIGNY, the cross-dressing, sword-fighting, opera singer, wherein she seduces men and women alike, wins numerous duels, must be twice pardoned by the King, and eventually finds true love., a play by Monica Cross (2023)

Source material: Wikipedia - "Julie d'Aubigny". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.