All the best,
John
The view from the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I have watched on TV.
José Luís Pereda and Dehesilla bulls for Curro Díaz, Eduardo Gallo & Arturo Saldivar.
Curro Díaz is an exquisite artist that I always enjoy meeting on a cartel. The first two tercios of the opening bull were not promising; it lost its footing during the saludo capotero and never displayed significant mobility. These defects continued into the tercio de muleta, but the animal managed to find life within its brave soul to give Curro Díaz some charges, allowing him to create a pleasingly artistic faena. The highlight was the intense first series of derechazos, five demanding, exceedingy slow and seamlessly linked passes which were accompanied by Curro’s magnificent aesthetic style. The bull had already given more of itself than we might have initially hoped. No doubt taken by this, Curro overextended his faena beyond the bull’s capacity to charge. Even so, there were the odd pleasing passes which might have yielded a cheap ear had he not pinchado. Despite Curro’s bright toreo, this was an underwhelming start to the corrida.
His second bull was putrid. Rather than charge like a brave bull might, it dozily wandered about the sand shaking its head in the vague direction of a red lure. In light of the bull’s condition, toreo was impossible.
Eduardo Gallo has recently shown signs that the promising novillero of his youth might (eventually, it has been ten years) grow into a significant matador de toros. His first bull was an exceedingly classy Nuñez that lacked just an edge of casta and strength to be described as a truly outstanding bull. Gallo was able to perform very correct toreo en redondo with both hands. However, his faena lacked an edge of personal expressiveness to communicate fully with the crowd. Nevertheless, his passes were technically sound, smooth and well linked. Gallo was able to let his personality come to the fore in the arrimón ojedista with which he concluded his faena. As a novillero he shone because of his encimismo and stoic stillness, it is therefore unsurprising that this facet of his toreo continues to be his primary calling card. An estocada led to a mild petition and a vuelta al ruedo.
While being one of the better bulls in a sub-standard lot, the fifth bull continued the generally poor tone set by its brothers. Gallo was able to channel its limited mobility into toreo en redondo and overcome its lack of class with his decisive muleta. This was not an emotive faena, however much we may want to stretch the meaning of that word. Yet, it was difficult to make this bull charge, and even harder to perform clean and smooth toreo with it, Gallo therefore deserves a large measure of credit for his performance. Eduardo concluded with another arrimón, this time it was greeted with jeers from a crowd that had seen enough of this lacklustre bull – a varied conclusion to a faena should be used to garnish a good performance, not recited automatically without considering the performance as a whole.
Arturo Saldivar is one of the group of young Mexican matadors that have forged their taurine apprenticeship in Spain, and is arguably one of its leading lights. His first bull was mobile but classless and Saldivar performed a long and varied faena showcasing his capable technique but there was nothing here to stir the crowd. The concluding manoletinas were exciting, but ultimately, we can take little of note from either the faena or the bull.
The sixth bull traced a similar path. It moved, but lacked conviction; there was no communicative casta in its charge. Saldivar gave many passes, but none was moving; he was rarely caught out by the bull, but his toreo carried no message. It was difficult to perform emotive toreo with either of his bulls, and his faenas were thus trapped in the taurine purgatory of the spectators’ boredom.
This had been a hopeless corrida, the bulls were rotten and, as a result, I cannot fault the toreros’ general performance. The main failing was that they spent too long in front of the bulls, continuing their faenas long after the spectators had abandoned all hope (forget purgatory, this corrida was hell). Poor bulls and faenas that last too long, a perfect definition for too many corridas in the twenty-first century. It is tough not to be pessimistic after this type of corrida. We know that there will be many more of its ilk during the course of the year, and you cannot help but wonder, what is the fiesta’s attraction to the casual aficionado when the average level of spectacle is so meagre? Besides, the paltry presentation of the cattle meant that they were not even an impressive sight to behold.
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