The
view from the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I have watched on TV.
Victorino
Bulls for Diego Urdiales, Manuel Escribano & Alberto Aguilar
This cartel was almost
a repeat of last Sunday’s corrida in Pamplona. The only difference being that
the albaserrada bulls on show would be from Victorino’s ranch, not Adolfo’s. Last
week’s corrida was negatively marked by the bull’s difficult, and generally
poor, behaviour. However, we aficionados are nothing if not a hopeful lot. It
is therefore with such hopeful mind-set that I sat before my TV set this
evening.
The first bull of the afternoon
held inside some deep and profound charges. It is to Urdiales’ credit that he
was able to craft his faena in such a way as to unlock these. The capotazos to
greet the bull were designed not to create a spectacle, but rather to focus the
bull and show it how to charge – of course, the good lidia is a spectacle in
and of itself. A special mention must go to Urdiales’ flowery remates with the
capote throughout the first two tercios; a change of hand to conclude a series
of veronicas, or to leave the bull before the horse added spice to his cape work.
Diego’s muleta work was
all about finding the bull’s profound charges. He began with some doblones in a
straight line and without punishing it in order to try and elongate its charge.
Its charged short when Urdiales took the right hand to perform derechazos, but
the faena maintained a level of interest. His performance, thankfully, took an emotive
step up al natural. The passes were not always linked (although this was largely
due to the bull’s condition), but certain individual naturales were excellent.
Taken as a whole, the faena did not move greatly, rather, it left me with the
satisfaction of seeing a job well done. The pinchazo prior to the estocada
(which was accompanied by a spectacular tossing) and the two subsequent
descabellos did not prevent the Mont de Marsan crowd from petitioning for an
ear. The president granted it. I felt this was somewhat generous given the
protracted kill, but I have never been one to get riled by an incorrect award
(or denial) of an ear – it is up to the aficionados to debate the merit of a
faena, regardless of the award.
Urdiales cut another
ear from the fourth bull following a measured and firm faena. The bull possessed
a meaningful charge, but it lacked repetition; when it charged the bull was committed,
however, the charges were few and far between. Urdiales was sure of himself
throughout the faena, and even concluded his performance with an arrimón close
to the bull’s horns. This decisiveness allowed Diego to extract some excellent
individual passes from the bull, however, the faena was as inconsistent as the
bull’s charge and lacked a really emphatic series to define it. Nevertheless, a
sure sword proved effective and the Mont de Marsan crowd petitioned for another
ear, which, once again, was duly granted.
Escribano’s first bull
shared the problems of the first (its charge was short, and it lacked
vibrancy), but Manuel was unable to extract meaningful toreo from it. Despite
its problems, the bull did not convey any threat, and did not transmit any
emotion through its charge. Escribano limited himself to performing a faena by
numbers; there were passes, but none will live in the memory. Besides, I had
the impression throughout the faena that Escribano was toreando too briskly. His
tercio de banderillas was acceptable but, again, not especially notable. All
pairs were al cuarteo, with the only variety being the terrains in which they
were placed, and only the third pair was placed square before the horns.
Escribano greeted the
fifth bull with a larga cambiada de rodillas close to the boards – it was well
received, but there was no toreo a la veronica to follow up. Manuel’s tercio de
banderillas was, once again, inconsistent – the first pair al cuarteo was a
toro pasado and the second, a violin al quiebro ended with the barbs in the bull’s
side. Thankfully, the third pair al cuarteo was placed squarely and the fourth,
a conventional quiebro, well executed and correctly placed. Escribano’s opening
combined spectacular toreo with a pase cambiado, with some admirabl derechazos;
low, well timed and nicely linked. I had Escribano for a torero that was high
on style and spectacle, but low on substance. However, today I discovered a
torero who could match his jovial bravery with reposed fundamental toreo. The
best series was the second with the right hand, he hooked the bull out in front
of him and timed it beautifully throughout the pass. However, he kept toreando
slowly throughout the faena – even as the bull’s charge shortened. He concluded
with some manoletinas before executing a textbook volapíe which led to an ear.
Nevertheless, the crowd
seemed to react coldly to Escribano throughout the afternoon, especially taking
into account their welcoming attitude to Urdiales. Assessing toreo can
sometimes be an exercise in confirmation bias; I wonder whether the crowd today
were reacting to Escribano and Urdiales in the context of today’s performance
of each of their reputations...
The third bull was the
most vibrant of the afternoon thus far. It began charging well as from the
tercio de varas, allowing for Aguilar and Urdiales to compete in quites; the
former by chicuelinas, the latter by delantales concluded with a beautiful
media veronica at waist height. Aguilar also did well in positioning the bull
at a distance for a spectacular second pic. With the muleta the bull retained
his vibrant, encastado charge and Aguilar was able to perform a very pleasing
faena. He began with several well linked series of derechazos that served as an
exciting start to the faena. When he took the left hand, the first couple of
series were aborted after the first pass; the first natural was excellent, but
as he stayed in the position to link the second the bull was on top of him. After
two attempts, Aguilar understood his mistake and lost a couple of steps between
each pass in order to link some exciting series en redondo. A pinchazo prior to
the estocada lost him a well-earned ear. The faena was good, however, I felt that
Aguilar was perhaps a notch or two below the level of the bull; his worked
lacked a measure of repose that would have taken it from good to great. I would
have loved to see El Cid in his prime
face this bull.
Aguilar improved
technically with the sixth bull. Although the faena did not reach the emotive
levels of his first, Alberto found the correct plan in order to produce some
good individual passes from a bull that barely gave away a charge. A reticent
charger, that also stayed short, it was impossible to link two passes together
and stay entirely still. Aguilar therefore lost passes between derechazos and
constructed several interesting series en redondo. Unfortunately, the bull did
not allow for anything more and the faena dissipated to nothing. It was,
however, a solid performance from Alberto Aguilar.
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