The view from the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I have watched on TV.
Puerto de San Lorenzo bulls for Daniel Luque, Juan del Álamo & Jímenez Fortes
This afternoon provided an intriguing cartel composed of promising young toreros who find themselves in a secondary plane to the consolidated figuras but who should be primed to take the final step. One could certainly argue that Luque is certainly staking his claim to the top this campaign. Furthermore, I always look forward to seeing the Atanasios of El Puerto – an encaste that seemingly had a bright future, but would have disappeared from the ferias but for the Fraile brothers.
Luque’s first bull was classy but ever so weak. With these types of bull, any positives offered by the quality of the charge are entirely negated by its weak condition – Luque said in the post-faena interview that the bull would have lasted better had the plaza’s sand been harder. I respectfully disagree, a bull must have certain vigour in order to convey emotion. This animal had no such vivacity. As such the faena lacked any meaningful impetus, there were the odd good naturales and there was always the feeling that the faena could develop; however such hope was a mirage with this weak bull. One of the few positives of the lidia was an attractive galleo to the horse by chicuelinas concluded with a radiant cordobina.
Del Álamo welcomed his first bull into the arena with a couple of larga cambiadas de rodillas – although it is difficult to tell watching on TV, it seems that these openings de rodillas are being greeted with increasing coldness by the public. This bull was also marked by its limited strength and therefore did not allow del Álamo construct a faena. To compound matters, del Álamo had a nightmare with the sword.
The story repeated itself with the third bull – to add insult to injury (or rather, the reverse), this bull also broke a hoof at the end of Fortes’ attempt at a faena.
The first half of the corrida had been disastrous. A succession of poor bulls had made any attempt at a faena futile. It is true that the state of the plaza’s sand left much to be desired; but the greater issue was the bulls’ rotten condition. Nevertheless, and against all logic, I was still hopeful that the corrida’s second half might yield something of note.
The fourth bull was a different proposition (thankfully!); it lacked the class of the first three bulls, but had some of the vivacity one would expect from a toro bravo. The movement and nerve of the bull meant that Luque was able to build a reasonably emotive faena de muleta, principally on the right side. It was not aesthetically stirring, but conveyed a level of the emotion a moving bull and well-timed muleta can offer. Given the disaster of the opening three bulls, this decent faena was very welcome. A full estocada, that took some time to take effect, gave way to an underwhelming petition – no doubt if the sword thrust had tumbled the bull sooner Luque might have earned an ear.
The fifth bull continued the afternoon’s slight upward turn. It charged vibrantly, with its head held low, but tended to cut its charge short. Nevertheless, it was, despite its imperfections, an emotive charge that could be moulded into good toreo. Del Álamo faced up to the bull’s challenge and performed an exciting faena, characterised by solid toreo en redondo. Juan was able to dominate the bull’s low charge and based his faena on the right side. Given the bull’s short charge, the series were intermittently linked, and suffered the odd enganchón. However, it was good to see a young torero construct his work around the positive elements of the bull’s charge, and overcome the negatives. A closely worked series of manoletinas concluded the performance with the muleta and Juan would have earned a meritorious ear for his work had he not taken three pinchazos to kill the bull.
Fortes’ second bull brought us back down to earth. Although it did not suffer the glaring and scandalous weakness of the first three bulls, it had the noble and bland charge that bores us on many an afternoon. Fortes began with a pase cambiado in the centre of the ring, it was an emotive, if rough, start to the faena. He then proceeded to execute many passes, none of which conveyed any emotion whatsoever. I can understand his desire to please by attempting a faena, but it was soon clear that the bull was empty, and it would have been advisable to reach for the sword a couple of minutes earlier.
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