The
view from the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I have watched on TV.
Domingo
Hernandez & Garcigrande Bulls for El
Juli, MA Perera & Paco Ureña
It would be fair to say that El Juli has had a mixed season. His extracurricular concerns have
certainly overshadowed the development of this season, and this, in turn, has
led to an inconsistency in his toreo. After missing out in Sevilla, he
highlighted his corridas in Nimes and Mont de Marsan (before Miura and La Quina
bulls respectively) as special events, but both were marred by substandard
bulls. On the brighter side, he had a notable triumph in Pamplona and also
today in Santander.
The corrida began with a noble, lively bull, which
had an edge of mansedubre, and therefore was often looking for a way out at the
end of the pass. This allowed El Juli
enough space between each pass to stay perfectly placed and, also, to elongate
the distance of each subsequent muletazo. Despite the starting with passes
camibados in the centre of the ring, conceptually this was a typically Julista faena – that is, characterised
above all by the quality of his toreo en redondo. The toro seemed willing to
rajarse at every stage, but El Juli’s
low, slow muleta kept him focussed during this long faena. An inelegant but
effective sword thrust led to a double prize.
The fourth bull allowed us to enjoy another pleasing
work from El Juli. The bull had a
cumbersome charge but El Juli set out
to polish its charge with his powerful muleta. The bull charged willingly to
the muleta but seemingly lacked commitment during the pass undermining the
quality of the same. It therefore necessitated a long faena to allow El Juli to bring the best out of the
bull with a couple of very good series en redondo at the end of the
performance. After being able to submit the bull to his fundamental toreo, El Juli resorted to the typical arrimón
of the post-modern faena to excite the crowd. I do not find arrimones
displeasing per se, but am often frustrated by the public’s reaction to them,
their neutral reaction to fundamental toreo seems to be at odds with the
emotion they seem to derive from figure of eight toreo. Nevertheless, and
brining the focus back to taoday’s faena, El
Juli might have cut a further ear or two had he not concluded with a
succession of pinchazos.
For those of you that have been following the 2014
season, it will come as no surprise that El
Juli was joined in his triumph by Miguel Ángel Perera. I have always
enjoyed Perera’s work and I am happy that his toreo is once again receiving the
attention that it thoroughly deserves. There is a certain view that this is his
best season since his excellent 2008 campaign; to my mind he has been the same
torero throughout, but he has not always enjoyed the favourable press given to
other toreros.
Miguel Ángel Perera performed an extraordinarily
varied tercio de capotes. He received the bulls with a couple of veronicas,
concluded with another few ganoeras. His quite was a five in one, comprising of
a chicuelina, tafallera, salterina, media veronica and gaonera. All of which
were seamlessly linked. He began the faena with estatuarios from the first pic
line – ten excellently linked passes during which Perera barely moved an inch from
his starting position. A stunning display of control. This bull was similarly
noble, but differed from the first in that its charge lacked vitality and he
was less prone to escape the lures. This allowed him to perform two excellent
series of derechazos, that shone through for their smoothness and the low
passes. The following series combined derechazos, naturales with the left hand,
and, after disposing of the sword mid series, a natural with the right hand.
However, Perera’s emphatic muleta had exhausted the bull that, after this
series, became rajado and headed to the boards. The faena was complete as the
bull did not even allow for an arrimón ojedista.
The estocada led to the ear that his dominant, solid faena and bright capework
thoroughly deserved.
Perera’a second bull was lively, but one borne out
of a cowardly anger rather than bravery. Nevertheless, its mobility allowed him
to perform two initial series en redondo with his right hand that served to
focus its charge on this side. Consequently, the third series marked the first
truly emotive series marked, as always by Miguel Ángel, by the quality of his
fundamental toreo. He then took the left hand to perform a couple of series of
low, slow, smooth and perfectly linked series of naturales. By this stage the
bull gave up it desire to charge and headed to the boards. Desirous for more,
Perera took the bull back to the centre of the ring for an acceptable, if
somewhat untidy, arrimón. A series of six very closely worked bernadinas served
as a prologue to an emotive estocada, the horn struck his abdomen, but
thankfully did not pierce the flesh, and the consequential ear. The bull’s
informal charge took some of the brilliance from this faena but it was, as we
are accustomed to seeing from Perera, an utterly dominant performance.
Paco Ureña’s bull was nervier, but lacked some of
the charge-on-rails class of the first two animals. Paco stood up to the bull
and managed an emotive but inconsistent faena. His timing was not always on
point, and he did not always keep the muleta close to the bull’s face between
each pass. However, when he found the correct technique, Ureña displayed a
solid concept of toreo: long, low passes, as it should be. The faena was well structured and concluded
with linked passes with the front and reverse of the muleta; it was not pure,
fundamental toreo, but it was controlled and emotive. Moreover, it exceited the
crowd, that subsequently petitioned for an ear notwithstanding the pinchazo
that preceded a hazardous estocada.
The final bull of the afternoon was excellent for
toreo en redondo with the muleta. It would charge from a distance, repeat
charges with vivacity and do so with the sufficient nobility to allow for clean
toreo. Happily, Paco Ureña was up the challenge posed by this bull. Given the
bull’s quality some might think why this would be a challenge… Simply put, it a
torero has a good bull and cannot perform toreo, then his place is redundant on
the cartel. There wre the logical inconsistencies in his toreo,but the good
muletazos, were excellent. The bull’s quality needed space, when Paco gave him
space the toreo emerged long and smooth, if he suffocated the bull and stayed
close, the charge was minimised. After a long faena combining toreo en redondo
on either wide, he concluded with the expected arrimón (which included some
passes camibados). Like Perera, he performed some bernadinas before leaving a
full estocada that proved sufficient to kill the bull and alloed him to cut a
deserved ear. Without wanting to minimise Ureña’s work, a more consistent
approach to the faena might have yielded a second ear.
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