Liebestod by Angélica Liddell

Angélica Liddell performs her own version of “the death of love” (“Liebestod”) mixing the end of Richard Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” and the art of bullfighting inspired by Juan Belmonte.

Liebestod, the title of the finale of Richard Wagner’s 1865 opera Tristan und Isolde, literally means “death of love.” The composer sets music to his own poetic rewriting of the medieval legend. The word Liebestod refers to the eroticism of death or “love until death,” invoking the idea that the consummation of the couple’s love takes place in death or even after death.

Liddell associates the Liebestod or death of love with the tragic life of Juan Belmonte, the mythical Sevillian matador who made bullfighting a spiritual exercise and the ultimate form of self-giving.

Specifically, Liddell describes bullfighting as an essential form of violence that, in her opinion, is linked to the three basic elements of life: sex, birth and death. As in classical tragedy and art, she states, it is through terror and compassion that purification or catharsis is achieved and we connect with the sacred.

In this show, Angélica Liddell is alternately both metaphors of the bull and the bullfight, Tristan and Isolde, the Devil and God.

Angélica Liddell

Artist and director Angelica Liddell is known for her radical and visually striking works. She has received numerous awards, including the Silver Lion at the Venice Theater Biennale. Liebestod, a show that connects the art of bullfighting with Classical tragedy, premiered at the 2021 Avignon Festival and garnered a standing ovation.