Julie, Monster: a queer baroque opera

Our most ambitious project is taking shape! We’ve written and scored a full-length opera dramatizing the amazing story of Julie d’Aubigny, swordswoman, opera star, and sexual outlaw in Louis XIV’s France.

A cast of 18 has been selected, including Jaylin Brown as Julie (pictured).

Performances are December 3rd and 5th live at the Firehouse Theatre in Richmond, with a streaming option  online on December 4th.

Help RVA Baroque make this ground-breaking performance a reality!

Why Queer?

“Queer” as used by many in the LGBTQ+ community transforms a once-hurtful term, much as this opera reclaims the word "monster." We’re not the only ones joyfully embracing monsterdom. Others got there before us, including Lady Gaga, whose fans call themselves Little Monsters.

By embracing its literal meaning of difference while rejecting its connotation of inferiority, users invest queerness with pride and love. Queer also meets a semantic need. Precise words exist for people’s affective and sexual affinities and for their gender identifications. But these words can feel reductive, labeling a person as one thing only for all times and contexts. What word do you use for yourself if you are many things, or the things you are shift and won’t be pinned down?

In our opera, there is no better word than queer to describe Julie, a figure so unconventional that even terms like “pansexual,” “non-binary,” and “gender-fluid” seem confining. Queer describes the composition as well, with its riffs on musical genres and its blending of electronic and wood-and-gut soundscapes. Finally, it describes the cast of our premiere production, who represent a glorious array of identities, self-presentations, abilities, bodies, backstories and beliefs.