Arles 29/03/2013 Toros de Alcurrucén, El Puerto de San Lorenzo & Garcigrande – J Bautista & S Castella (mano a mano)
I found it an
entertaining event, and a useful reminder of how much I had missed los toros
over the winter.
The bulls were
generally good. The presentation was a notch or two below what one would expect
in a Spanish first category plaza, but I have no real issue with this; the
corrida was fine looking and I often find bulls in the top Spanish plazas grotesquely
over-sized.
The two Alcurrucén
bulls were both very classy and allowed for a couple of well worked faenas, I
especially enjoyed the smooth, long, repetitive charges of the second of these
(the sixth bull). The Garcigrande bulls were satisfactory, again, each
allowing for a faena, and I was especially moved by the piquancy of the fourth
bull (although this was partly down to it being under-picced). The Puerto de
San Lorenzo bulls were disappointing.
I was impressed with
Castella. I greatly admire Castella's heroic facet, his utter stillness in
toreo por alto and his form of entering the bulls terrain in order to conclude
his faenas with a host of close passes, but am sometimes underwhelmed by his
toreo en redondo, on most days it seems that he cuts his passes slightly short
which in turn makes his toreo mechanical and cold. Thankfully, yesterday
Castella's toreo en redondo rose a level and both elements of his toreo were
married beautifully to give a very pleasing performance. He delivered the
estatuarios and ojedismo that one expects from Castella and these were executed
perfectly. However, what really stood out for me was the fluidity and length of
his toreo en redondo - especially with the sixth bull. The faena to the fourth
bull was more inconsistent as Castella struggled to come to terms with the
bulls nerve in the early part of the faena, once the bull was domianted the
toreo en redondo flowed brillianty.
Jaun Bautista gave a
wonderfully varied afternoon with capote, muleta and banderillas that would
have yielded more than an ear had his sword travelled true (especially had he
succeeded in his attempt at an estocada recibiendo in the first bull). Although
there was no signature faena that would have marked the difference between a
good afternoon and a great one, each of his interventions carried interest. His
capote was varied, intertwining classical veronicas with more spectacular
saltilleras and kneeling veronicas. With the muleta Bautista was templado and
technically correct throughout. The tercio de banderillas he performed with the
fifth bull was dominant and varied, certainly better than should be expected
from a part time banderillero.
No comments:
Post a Comment