Sevilla - Feria de Abril 13/04/2013

Sevilla 13/04/2013 - Lo bien toreao es lo bien arrematao (Rafael “El Gallo”)

Sevilla. 13^th April 2013. Bulls (in order of appearance) de Núñez del Cuvillo, Garcigrande, Victorino Martín, El Pilar; and two from Juan Pedro Domecq (5^th & 6^th)

José María Manzanares (light blue and gold suit): ovation, ovation, silence, silence, light claps and two orejas.

Lo bien toreao es lo bien arrematao; this Rafael El Gallo phrase has served me for today’s review, because, indeed, Manazanares’ solo corrida was excellently arrematao. Of course, El Gallo’s quote refers to toreo itself, and submits that a pass or series, no matter how brilliant its beginning, must be concluded properly and powerfully. However, El Gallo, a philosopher at heart, is merely describing human nature. We enjoy crescendos, and abhor anti-climaxes, often forgetting that, in the case of the latter, they must, by nature, be preceded by a climax. Therefore after five bulls had been dispatched, and with the crowd expectations dashed, José María Manzanares rose like a phoenix from the ashes to perform a truly wonderful faena that, in and of itself, went a fair way to justifying his proposition.

The problem I find with solo corridas is that they raise the bar of expectation far too high. Most corridas in Sevilla transpire with barely an ear been cut, much less an outstanding faena being performed. Consequently, why, in the case of a solo corrida, does the afición expect the opposite to be true and the afternoon to contain a hatful of ears and a couple of historic faenas?

With this expectation, Jose María Manzanares crossed the golden sand of the Maestranza for the opening parade, impeccably dressed in a striking light blue suit, his solitary figure casting a haunting image, reinforcing the fact that here was a man alone to face six bulls. The psychological impact of this cannot be underestimated, the entire afternoon’s brilliance rested on his shoulders. The weight of the burden would increase as each successive bull left the arena with both its ears intact.

The corrida had began promisingly, the opening Cuvillo bull showed its classy charge immediately as it allowed Manzanares to perform pleasing veronicas to saludar, these were interspersed with a playful chicuelina and concluded with a well-executed media veronica. Unhappily, it also seemed as if the Cuvillo’s silky charge would be hampered by limited strength, thus Manzanares ordered a two light pics, broken up with a short but bright quite by chicuelinas. The Cuvillo’s classy charge came to the fore, but lingering in the background was the doubt of how it would withstand the final third, in the event Manzanares performed a short but intense faena based on the bull’s right horn. The bull run out of gas a couple of series too early, but, even so, the toreo en redondo was commendable and I have heard the Maestranza band strike up a pasodoble to less. Overall it seemed as if the crowd was in the frame of mind to witness something truly extraordinary, and therefore, the merely good was of no interest to it.

The Domingo Hernández bull, run in second place, was an altogether different proposition. The compliant desire of the Cuvillo was replaced with the testing casta of a bull with nerve. To begin his faena Manzanares sought to submit the bull’s charge with some punishing low genuflecting passes before electing to take the right hand for toreo en redondo. The bull had its problems, but once enticed with the muleta possessed a long charge from which Manzanares was able to extract a couple of very well worked series en redondo. Again it seemed as if the crowd and band were a touch cold – the afición was prepared to encourage Manzanares, but it would not surrender to him easily. For the second time the bull lacked about ten passes in order to allow the faena to fully take form; after the initial charges, the bull would stop and measure the torero between each pass, and Manzanares stood still, faced up to his challenge and with a firm toque drove its focus back to the muleta. It was a show of controlled bravery that was necessary to demonstrate Manzanares’ desire to triumph this afternoon.

What these opening two bulls also showed was that it is not just passes and series that must be well concluded (as per El Gallo’s phrase), but also faenas – despite their auspicious start, both works faded to nothing as the bull’s charge dissipated. Perhaps, had these bulls been run later in the corrida, there might have been a more positive outcome.

Given the promising, but ultimately underwhelming, start the mood in the plaza was edgy and tense as the Victorino (a striking light grey bull) entered the arena. Unfortunately, the bull was tough and while it maintained a level of excitement throughout its lidia, it did not allow for beautiful toreo. After Juan José Trujillo showcased supreme bravery and ability to place two spectacular pairs of banderillas, Manzanares began to torear with the left hand and extracted some well worked and long naturales. However, the mirage of the bull’s long charge faded quickly and the faena concluded with suitable macheteo.

By the half-way point of the corrida, both the toreros and the crowd’s hopes were foundering – but by the time the fifth bull was taken away by the mulilas, such hopes had sunk. The fourth El Pilar bull was poor by all measures, weak, lacking class and the type of bull that does not allow for a moment’s brilliance. The fifth bull, a Juan Pedro Domecq, a sobrero as the original Toros de Cortés bull was rejected, was better. Like the first and second bulls it allowed for a good beginning to the faena, a superb tanda of derechazos caused the band to strike up, but, once again, the bull exhausted its reserve of charges fairly promptly and the faena was not adequately concluded.

Five bulls and five disappointments, it seemed as if the afternoon was meandering into disenchantment. However, fate had ordained for an ideal bull to be waiting in the pens for Manzanares to be able to properly conclude and rematar his feat.

Notwithstanding the unfortunate development of the corrida, the crowd was grateful to Manzanares’ for his heroic decision to face six bulls and between the fifth and sixth bull encouraged him with a standing ovation. It was the emotive highlight of the corrida thus far, the crowd helping the hero when he most need their confidence, and this visibly struck a nerve with the torero who was spurred to head for the puerta de chiqueros and greet the sixth bull a porta gayola. What followed was an artistic work of cathedral-like stature that was delightful to experience, but will no doubt be harder to describe.

To greet the bull, Manzanares performed three larga cambiadas de rodillas, a cluster of beautifully executed veronicas and an emphatic media veronica on his knees. The bull had a long, exciting and noble charge that Manzanares would exploit until the end of his masterpiece. For the second time in the afternoon he performed a quite artístico sculpturing a well-timed series of tafalleras capped with a delicate tijerilla. Curro Javier, Luís Blázquez and Trujillo performed a magical tercio de banderillas: the star cuadrilla working like clockwork, with each profound capotazo leaving the bull in exactly the right place for an exposed and exciting pair of banderillas.

The plaza was, for the first time in the afternoon, braced with excitement and positivity as Manzanares went to the centre of the ring to dedicate his performance to the crowd. There he called the bull for his first tanda of derechazos. The bull’s charge was profound and sprightly allowing for intense series en redondo impregnated with Manzanares’ imperial elegance. The first three series were all based on the right horn and followed a similar structure – a long distance initial cite which showcased the bull’s excellent charge and allowed for extended sweeping derechazos, after the three of these, and with the bull tracing tighter circle around the torero, the derechazos were shorter but more curvilinear, a slightly retreated back leg giving them more length than would otherwise be the case. The remates, passes with the reverse of the muleta either por alto or por bajo, were resounding. Manzares continued his great faena on the bull’s left side; the naturales that surged were long and fluid, the edges of the muleta dancing as the torero enticed the bull to the ends of its charge. Once back on the right side the bull’s one time energetic charge had been reduced to a noble trot, but still, there was enough there for Manzanares to garnish his faena with a flowery capeína and some baroque adorning passes.

He closed the bull to the tercio (the entire faena de muleta had been in the middle of the ring) and performed one of his now classic estocadas recibiendo, which although well executed, was somewhat tendida and thus needed a descabello. The two ears that the president awarded were well deserved in the context – it would have been unnecessarily miserly to have given this great work anything less.

The plaza had finally succumbed to Manzanares and, in the ecstasy, petitioned for a sobrero – my heart agreed with the petition, my head told me that lo bien toreao es lo bien arrematao, and the odds of the sobrero allowing for an equally powerful conclusion were very slim indeed.