Tragédie

Fancasting

Sat, 11 May 2013 08:16:48 +1000

A recent note from mysterysquid: ”Not really a question, but I loved the Natalie Dormer fancasting. Any opinion, as a professional Maupinologist?”

Interesting, isn’t it? She’s not the look I’d have imagined, but speaking French, singing opera and fencing ought to be enough qualification for anyone.

But being asked that made me realise in all these years of working on the book,researching La Maupin and hearing my version of her voice in my head, I’ve never actually done that thing of casting the part.

I have her face in my mind, but it’s an imagined face. Her stance, her walk, her voice - all of it. But it’s not like anyone I’ve seen before.

Now you ask, I had a think about it and the closest I can imagine is more of the look and bearing of Julia Ormond or Rachel Stirling.

But In Natalie Dormer’s defence I’ve really only ever seen her as Margaery.

wuthering-dreams: Versailles

Fri, 10 May 2013 20:20:19 +1000

wuthering-dreams:

Versailles

its-a-violet-thing: I drew Julie D’Aubigny. Because I can. It’s...

Fri, 10 May 2013 19:42:11 +1000

its-a-violet-thing:

I drew Julie D’Aubigny.

Because I can.

It’s kinda wonky though.

La Maupin fanart

justasuta: La Maupin - Acrylic on Wooden Skateboard A project...

Fri, 10 May 2013 19:41:33 +1000

justasuta:

La Maupin - Acrylic on Wooden Skateboard

A project where we had to design a skateboard depicting a ‘legendary figure’. Mine was Julie D’Aubigny or La Maupin, an 18th century French opera singer/fencer/scalawag/bisexual lover extraordinaire. She injured/killed around ten men in her lifetime, burned down a convent and kidnapped the nun she was banging and retired as an opera singer after she got the police off her back. AND THIS WAS THE 1700s YOU GUIZ. That’s pretty damn impressive.

So is this board. :D It’s mostly an all-nighter’s worth of work but I’m pretty damn happy with how it turned out in the end. I love how she and the nuns came out, though the men are varying(they were the last thing I did). That guy with the sword is super kawaii desu in a bad way. And the rest are all ugly in their own special ways. The dead guys look better. XD

La Maupin: The skateboard.

Impressive.

This 17th-century sword-swinging opera singer will rule the Internet in 2013

Fri, 10 May 2013 19:40:27 +1000

This 17th-century sword-swinging opera singer will rule the Internet in 2013:

She’s the hottest renegade outlaw-turned-nun-debaucher-turned opera star you never knew you loved. The Internet is poised to make Julie D’Aubigny a star. Again.

Here’s the meme update.

How exciting. La Maupin deserves celebrity. Again.

I’ve just been writing part of the theoretical component about her as a celebrity.

Man, that’s so meta.

lostsplendor: Two Unidentified Women Fencing, 1885 (by George...

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:59:15 +1000

lostsplendor:

Two Unidentified Women Fencing, 1885 (by George Eastman House)

Imagine fencing in those skirts. I couldn’t do it.

Always a star

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:56:40 +1000

Noticing a lot of love for La Maupin on tumblr in particular lately. Not surprised.

Who wouldn’t love a sword-fighting cross-dressing opera-singing seventeenth century Frenchwoman?

justanothercyanidesky: Versailles Palace Theater Built after...

Fri, 03 May 2013 18:27:01 +1000

justanothercyanidesky:

Versailles Palace Theater

Built after La Maupin’s death, but a lovely example of a late Baroque opera house.

You can only visit it on the guided tours of Versailles which go through the private apartments, but it’s well worth it.

The Grand Ecurie or Great Stables at Versailles where, I...

Fri, 03 May 2013 18:14:00 +1000

The Grand Ecurie or Great Stables at Versailles where, I suggest, Julie d’Aubigny grew up, after spending her early childhood in Paris (at the old Tuileries palace).

Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles in May 1682.

sass—quatch: 58 Days Left this morning have drawn a...

Fri, 03 May 2013 18:07:46 +1000

sass—quatch:

58 Days Left

this morning have drawn a page for the La Maupin article.. it was meant to be an illustrative boarder, but I was carried away a bit. Maybe I can cut and paste existing stuff into a boarder?
Nethertheless I was able to experiment with photocopying pencil drawing, which is good.

Gonna go experiment rendering it with watercolour

P.S. Also downloaded rad fonts last night.

Reblogging some recent artworks about La Maupin.

le-claire-de-lune: So as it turns out Natalie Dormer is a mezzo soprano and is a member of the...

Fri, 03 May 2013 18:05:26 +1000

le-claire-de-lune:

So as it turns out Natalie Dormer is a mezzo soprano and is a member of the London Fencing Academy.

So yeah, bring on that Julie D’Aubigny biopic.

Hell yeah.

So close

Fri, 03 May 2013 18:00:00 +1000

Making final tweaks to the manuscript of Tragedie. I think I’m on my last round. A week ago I was sick to death of it, which is always a sign of an imminent finish. But today I liked it again, so we’re friends.

servant-of-fate: Saber [Julie D’Aubigny] Requested...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:08:25 +1100

servant-of-fate:

~~Saber~~ [Julie D’Aubigny]
Requested by: panncakez

Another new representation of La Maupin. With moustache!

art-of-swords: Silver-Gilt Hilted Small-Sword Dated: circa...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:05:50 +1100

art-of-swords:

Silver-Gilt Hilted Small-Sword

Dated: circa 1670

Culture: Dutch or French

Measurements: Length: 95.5cm / 37.6 inches

Fitted with later tapering blade of flattened hexagonal section, the forte with wide central fuller along each side etched and gilt with whorled designs and with a central line of applied alternate silver florets and ovals, with a crowned profile bust in an oval. The cast and chased hilt comprising slightly upturned double shell-guard decorated in relief on the inner and outer sides with Zeus in a chariot drawn by two eagles and a Classical warrior in armour in a chariot drawn by horses, each between naked demi-figures, against a pierced ground and with a grotesque mask above.

The quillon-block decorated on each side with a putto-head between demi-figures, a horned satyr-mask beneath, with partly reeded arms, reeded rear quillon and knuckle-guard, each issuing from the mouth of a monster, the former with terminal formed as a demi-figure in the round holding a bow, the latter with mustachioed grotesque-masks back and front centred on a standing naked female figure. The globular pommel en suite, with later grip bound with varying thicknesses of twisted gilt wire.

For a very similar steel hilt, almost certainly by the same maker and preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Reg. No. 61-1947), see A.V.B. Norman, The Rapier and Small-Sword 1460-1820, 1980, pl. 102. A number of similar blades are recorded, one in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, one formerly in the collection of Stephen V. Grancsay, New York, another in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. No. A 2036), one in the Royal Armouries, Leeds (ex Seymour E. Lucas sale, Christie’s London, 15 May 1956, lot 217), and others in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Source & Copyright: Peter Finer

Rewrites

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:58:57 +1100

Halfway through what I hope will be the final draft of Tragédie: The singular adventures and lamentable demise of Mademoiselle de Maupin.

Though it’s always hard to know which draft is the last draft. I hope from now on there will be more tweaking than OHMYGODWHATWASITHINKING.

But I could be wrong. Very wrong.

"Why do you weep? Did you think I was immortal?"

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:35:05 +1100

“Why do you weep? Did you think I was immortal?”

- Louis XIV (last words)

Compilation

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:34:00 +1100

Probably nobody cares but me, but I’ve just assembled the most comprehensive table of Julie d’Aubigny/Mademoiselle de Maupin’s opera performances ever. EVER, I tell you.

a-l-ancien-regime: “Monsieur de...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:10:36 +1100

a-l-ancien-regime:

“Monsieur de Pourceaugnac”*

Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Pater (1695-1736)

Previously attributed to Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)

c. 1728-36

Oil on canvas

Monsieur de Pourceaugnac is a five-act comédie-ballet—a ballet interrupted by spoken dialogue—by Molière, before the court of Louis XIV at the Château of Chambord. The music was composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully.

* Julie has no desire to wed Pourceaugnac and is in love with the young and handsome Parisian Éraste. In order to avoid the impending marriage, Julie and Éraste use a series of clever deceits.

Julie, wearing a green and red dress, introduces Monsieur de Pourceaugnac to five children who she claims are his. He, wearing a blue coat, tries to fend them off.

a-l-ancien-regime: Paris, hôtel de Boisgelin ou de La...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:09:10 +1100

a-l-ancien-regime:

Paris, hôtel de Boisgelin ou de La Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville, salon de la Mappemonde, Jacques de La Guépière, c. 1715

What I did next

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:02:00 +1100

I am sitting at my desk, staring up at a huge metaphorical pile of paper. The next draft of Tragédie.

I returned to my office after a few weeks away to find this, hurriedly scribbled in my own handwriting:

I do not transgress. I transcend.

I’ve been writing in the voice of Julie d’Aubigny for so long, it seems she is now leaving notes for me.

So next…

I’ve read everything from detailed architectural plans of 17th century theatres to historical analyses of cross-dressing in literature to academic arguments about the Baroque.

Today I read another yet article* which suddenly made a whole lot of things abundantly clear. I love how that happens.

I’m torn between recording the process and theory, and focusing on the fiction.

But I will go tackle the redraft.

This is how I want it to be:

- An entertaining romp

- A heartbreaking tragedy

- A riff on celebrity, on gender, on queer, on redemption

- A picaresque, a song, an elegy, an aria

- Theatre on the page. Or possibly cinema.

- A rakish hat, a swirling cloak, a flashing blade.

Most of all, I want people to know about the real Mademoiselle de Maupin, even if she is viewed through lenses of my making.

Yes. There’s lots going on there. But I want you to be able to read it without knowing all the theory behind it, want it to fly on invisible strings. I want it to burst out of its formal structure and out of its historical context. I want you to laugh and wonder and pity her. I want it to be a ripping yarn.

I want it to be worthy of her.

[Rolls up sleeves.]

Best get to it, then.

* ‘Crossing Borders with Mademoiselle de Richelieu: Fiction, Gender, and the Problem of Authenticity’, Carolyn Woodward, Eighteenth Century Fiction, Volume 16, Issue 4, McMaster University, 2004.