KISS MY SWORD
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KISS MY SWORD ⚔
Kiss My Sword is an upcoming full-length opera about Julie d’Aubigny, who fought in the streets, stole and broke hearts, crossdressed, transgressed, and commanded the stage of the Paris Opera in 17th century France.
FAQ
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FAQ ⚔
WHY JULIE d’AUBIGNY?
Despite living centuries ago, Julie still feels contemporary to us – a person who pushed against the boundaries of her life in a way that still resonates today. As we’ve shared this project, we’ve found that many people have heard parts of her story without necessarily knowing her name. Julie lived loud and fast, leaving behind a trail of stories and gossip that don’t quite line up. Her story resists neat facts. We’re interested in her because she’s slippery, complicated, and refuses to be pinned down.
HOW DID JULIE IDENTIFY?
We don’t know – there are no primary sources that provide an answer, and no evidence for Julie’s own conception of self. We’ve used “queer” as a basic descriptor with the full understanding that this is a modern category based in a modern context, and she/her pronouns as that is what she would have used and what has been used for her in primary sources. In the work itself this question is not answered – this is not a piece about how Julie felt about herself, but about her effect on the world around her.
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JULIE?
For a non-fictional overview ofthe popular history of Julie, there is an episode of Bad Gays podcast, which includes a source list. There’s also an episode of You’re Dead To Me. For written work, Kelly Gardiner’s Goddess (2014) is a novelisation of Julie’s life done as part of a PhD project – the book is a fictional biography, but some of Gardiner’s research can be found on her website. These are some relatively accessible ways of learning Julie’s history, getting an overview of what we do and do not know, and exploring the most (in)famous stories/myths about her.
HOW ARE WE APPROACHING JULIE’S STORY?
Trying to research Julie turns up only very sparse primary sources but a multitude of stories, rumour and gossip across historical eras. We’re interested in how stories about her have proliferated – and been used – across the centuries. The music will experiment with the fluidity of time, and will honour Julie’s legacy as a baroque opera singer by occasionally engaging with baroque modes. We’re interested not only in telling Julie’s story, but engaging with the historical incongruities around her, and the impossibility of settling on just one ‘version’ of the story.
ARE THERE OTHER CHARACTERS IN THE OPERA?
Within the narrative of Kiss My Sword we have chosen to bear down on two figures who appear frequently in Julie’s periphery. The first is the Comte d’Albert, a swordsman she defeated in a duel and who would go on to become one of the longest-running relationships in her life. The second is the Marquise de Florensac, an independently wealthy noblewoman and a person who Julie seemingly loved deeply. Like Julie herself, these are figures more of myth than fact at this point, and we have chosen to explore who they might have been in a more speculative way.
WANT MORE OF OUR WORK?
Check out some of our past collaborations:
Meta Cohen (composer), Evan Bryson (librettist) and Coady Green (pianist/producer):
Delphi Songs,a song cycle about prophecies, endings and the last Oracle of Delphi (song cycle for soprano, piano and two singing bowls / version for soprano, harp, prepared piano and two singing bowls) | MORE INFO | LISTEN
Meta Cohen (composer) and Evan Bryson (librettist):
Caedo,a choral work about ideological violence in the Crusades and beyond (winner of third prize in the Leonardo da Vinci International Composers Competition in Florence, Italy, 2023) | MORE INFO | LISTEN
Meta Cohen (composer) and Alyson Campbell (director/dramaturg):
promiscuous/cities, a symphony of a single night in San Francisco (theatre show, presented as part of the British Council’s UK/Australia Season in London) | MORE INFO
DFLTLX, or Doctor Faustus Lights The Lights, Gertrude Stein’s eco-feminist take on the Faust legend (theatre show) | MORE INFO
HOMO FOMO, a show about the fear of dancing, the pursuit of queer joy and being a Bad Queer (theatre show) | MORE INFO
Meta Cohen (composer) and Coady Green (pianist/producer):