Bullfights are a matter of life and death. The award-winning Spanish performance artist Angélica Liddell puts no less on the line. In the third part of the series Histoire(s) du Théâtre, Liddell confronts the theatre and a society that has lost its ties to spirituality and transcendence. The title refers to the apex of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde, in which the two lovers can only find each other in Liebestod – love death –, and to the legendary torero Juan Belmonte. It was his trademark to fight dangerously close to the animal’s body, due to his deformed legs. Belmonte was never beaten, and eventually committed suicide. In the midst of a bullring, Liddell delves into all these figures and stories and calls up overwhelming images: the exceptional performance artist is both lover and beloved, bull and torero, enthralled by theatre and full of disdain.
