#51 A Man Condemned To Misfortune & A Duelling Opera Singer (Adolphe Sax & Julie d'Aubigny)

Welcome back to Mostly Unsung the weekly comedy history podcast hosted by two women, where Annie and Andrea bring you two bite-sized biographies of the forgotten people, overlooked icons, and outrageous characters history didn’t quite know what to do with.If you love funny history podcasts, music history, women in history, and wild true stories, you’re in exactly the right place.This week, we’re heading to France for two lives that are anything but ordinary.First, Andrea tells the story of Adolphe Sax, the brilliant and slightly unlucky inventor. A child with a knack for surviving truly alarming accidents, Sax grew up to revolutionise music history with an instrument that would go on to define jazz, classical and popular music. But success doesn’t come easily, and lawsuits escalate into more drama than you’d expect from a man just trying to improve a wind instrument.Then Annie introduces the utterly unforgettable Julie d'Aubigny, also known as La Maupin, a 17th-century opera singer, duellist, and all-round chaos icon. She sang on the biggest stages in French opera, fought duels (often) and scandalised polite society. Honestly, if you’re looking for a badass woman in history, this might be your new favourite story.Expect music, mayhem, French history, and plenty of laughs as we dive into two lives that prove reality is far stranger, and far more entertaining, than fiction.Annie used these sources for this episode:https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/julie-daubigny-la-maupin-and-early-french-operahttps://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/julie-daubigny-opera-singer-gay-lover/Where you can find us:https://www.instagram.com/mostlyunsung/https://www.facebook.com/share/16J4vuMy1h/https://www.tiktok.com/@[email protected] you next Wednesday!