Julie d’Aubigny was an opera singer, duelist, and famous lover.
Her father was a fencing master who supposedly dressed her as a boy and taught her swordplay and card sharping. She worked her way through France — and lovers — putting on fencing displays with her fencing master boyfriend.
After wounding the Comte d’Albert in a duel, she nursed him to health, and probably become his lover. They certainly became lifelong friends.
In 1690, she joined the Paris opera and debuted as Pallas Athena in Cadmus et Hermione by Jean-Baptiste Lully. She became a successful singer who had roles written for her, and eventually sang at Versailles.
She had many high-profile affairs with men and women, including an affair with Madame la Marquise de Florensac, hailed as the most beautiful woman in France at the time. They lived together for two years until the death of de Florensac.
After her lover’s death, Julie d’Aubigny entered a convent where she died in 1707 at the age of 33 (or maybe 36).