Arles 30/03/2013 Torrestrella – JJ Padilla, I Fandiño & D Luque
A varied string of Torrestrella bulls provided the raw material for another good corrida in Arles on Saturday (the toreros were JJ Padilla, I Fandiño and D Luque). Their presentation was a couple of levels above Friday's string; although still fine looking, the Torrestrella bulls were bigger and more serious than Friday's mixed lots. Their performance was satisfactory, fourth and fifth were standouts for their bravura - the fourth was bravo with casta and fifth bravo and noble - the first bull had a very promising performance until it hurt one of its front legs early in the faena.
I greatly admire JJ Padilla, although his brand of popular tremendismo is not to everyone's liking, and certainly on occasions borders on the uncouth, his track record of imposing this toreo on the most undesirable bulls on the circuit deserves such admiration. He was typically varied and involved with the capote, his well-timed veronicas were pleasant and his more spectacular interventions (such as a larga cambiada de rodillas to conclude a quite, which nearly cost him a nasty voltereta) exciting. Both his tercios de banderillas were very good, I particularly enjoyed his intrepid pairs de poder a poder and a well-executed par al quiebro. The faena to his first bull began with promise but was cut short by the bull's aforementioned injury. However, with the fourth bull, Padilla was able to showcase his complete tauromaquia; love it or hate it, Padilla gave his all before a testing bull. Although it lacks refinement, his toreo en redondo was well linked and fluid, better with the right hand with which he extracted the longer passes. After this initial conventional introduction, Padilla began to transform himself into the "Cyclone" which has brought him fame and performed figure of eight toreo that found great favour with the crowd. It began with orthodox passes cambiados linked with passes naturales, before giving way to populist tremendismo: circulares, kneeling passes and manoletinas (which were jovial rather than stoic). The faena was more exciting than profound, but it certainly struck a chord with the crowd that overwhelmingly petitioned for the two ears.
As we know, Fandiño is an entirely different type of torero; while Padilla can be perceived as the cheerful southerner, Fandiño is very much the serious northerner. He gave a very solemn afternoon of toros and was responsible for the most moving fundamental toreo of the corrida. He was actively involved in quites, and I would like to highlight an excellent series of gaoneras, executed with absolute stillness as the bull's horns brushed his belly. Fandiño’s first faena was technically excellent, the bull was gazapón and Fandiño readjusted his footing accordingly between each pass in order to be able to link his toreo en redondo. The faena could not be aesthetically pleasing, but his firmness and forceful toreo en redondo would surely have earned him an ear had he not erred with the sword. The fifth bull had a sweeter charge (although it lacked an edge of nerve which would have helped Fandiño’s toreo transmit more to the crowd) and allowed for a more visually pleasing faena with Fandiño’s derechazos and naturales being more fluid, longer and better linked. This time the sword thrust was effective and the oreja deservedly awarded. A serious afternoon from Fandiño, although it lacked the fireworks of Padilla’s efforts, it was a more profound and meaningful performance.
Luque’s faena to the third combined three distinct tauromaquias. The bull was weak and carried its head at mid-height, the main body of the faena was therefore an Enrique Ponce type clinic of torear a media altura, this allowed him to perform several aesthetic and pleasing series of derechazos. However, Luque is not Ponce and the faena therefore suffered from an inconsistency that prevented Luque to elevate it from good to great. The second tauromaquia showcased was the toreo sevillano of his home province, Luque’s two handed remates and recortes impregnated the faena with the flavor of the Vazquezs or Morante de la Puebla; delightful. The concluding tauromaquia employed by Luque was ojedismo; once the bull’s limited energy had been sapped, Luque tried to concluded with an ojedista style arrimón (with missed results). Although it could be argued that the faena suffered from an acute identity crisis, the result was pleasing enough, tempered to a certain extent by the bull’s condition. A sure sword thrust therefore gave way to a satisfactory ear. The sixth bull was dull and lackluster making a faena impossible. Before signing off I would like to highlight some excellent capote work with Luque. His gaoneras were delivered with utter stillness and his veronicas were superb (after Morante, Luque is arguably the best veroniqueador of the escalafón) – unfortunately some of his remates were not executed with the requisite precision.
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