Juan Pedro Domecq Bulls for El
Soro, Enrique Ponce & José María Manzanares.
This afternoon marked a double celebration for
Valencia. The city’s popular hero, El
Soro was reappearing in its plaza following a long and arduous recovery
from a succession of knee operations. His paseillo this afternoon marked a
triumph of the spirit, the question was whether his battered body would be up
to the task. I will allow myself to get misty eyed over the afternoon’s second cause
for celebration, the twenty fifth anniversary of Enrique Ponce’s alternativa.
Enrique Ponce has been a torero for as long as I have been an aficionado, I do
not know a fiesta without Ponce, and during that time he has given me countless
afternoons of joy. His next great faena
will be just around the corner, I can only hope that I will be able to
experience it. The third torero on the cartel, José María Manzanares, is not
from Valencia, but being from just down the road in Alicante means that he is
almost considered a local lad and capped the line-up with an artistic edge. The
behaviour of the Juan Pedros would hold the key to the afternoon, I find it an
inconsistent ranch. It does provide a classy bull, but it is also a ranch that
is more than capable of providing an absolutely putrid string.
To see El
Soro take the ring was a miracle in itself, it was clear as he made the
paseillo how much his movement is impaired by his bionic knees. It was
therefore fortunate that his first bull was a noble, almost docile, animal that
allowed him to perform the lidia with ease. El
Soro engaged the crowd in the first two tercios with his varied toreo and,
just as significantly, his affable, infectious personality. Toreo is a
performance art, and El Soro took the
stage and managed the crowd with great skill. His veronicas to receive the bull
were respectable and his tercio de quites varied and attractive. The highlight
of the Soro display is, of course,
the banderillas during which he surgically repaired knees were no obstacle to a
pleasing tercio that included his daring pair al remolino. El Soro continued to handle the crowd during the faena de muleta,
selling his muleta work and adorning it with extra-taurine actions such as
planting a valencian flag in the centre of the ring. A strictly technical
appraisal of the faena would not be altogether kind on El Soro given his inability with the right hand to lower the muleta
or pass the bull close to him. However, this was a special afternoon where the
crowd was willing to forgive such details just to be able to honour its hero
one last time, besides, his toreo al natural was objectively excellent and
profound. With the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand, only poor sword
work prevented Vicente Ruíz from cutting an ear.
The show contined with the fourth bull,
beginning with a larga cambiada a porta gayola executed while sitting on a
chair. On the one side, the chair evokes images of Rafael El Gallo toreando on a chair, but it also served as a reminder that
this was a torero that was too physically limited to get to his knees. El Soro once again shone with the
banderillas, surpassing his previous effort with some risky and tight al
caurteo and an even more dramatic and pronounced par al remolino. This fourth
bull was did not have the sweet charge of the opener and El Soro was unable to construct a meaningful faena, which, of
course, did not prevent the crowd from cheering on his every pass. They would
have even strongly petitioned for an ear that the president did not grant.
However, the afternoon ended on a sour note for El Soro with a serious voltereta suffering injured vertebrae – a
reminder, as if we ever needed one that toreo is a serious proposition indeed.
As a one off performance, El Soro’s
return to Valencia was the type of emotive afternoon that the fiesta can give
us, however, because of the physical limitations on his toreo, it should not be
an experiment that is repeated, for El
Soro and la fiesta’s benefit.
Enrique Ponce’s first bull was a nervy animal,
with mobility, but lack class. Enrique’s muleta was a well-timed balsam for the
bull’s encastado charge, Enrique presented it at the correct height and with
conviction to ensure that the animal followed the lure, evening though it kept
on looking at the man and repeated its charges. After the first couple of seies
with the right hand, Ponce had dominated the animal and smoothed its rough
charge. It was at this point that Enrique was able to relax and perform an
excellent series of perfectly linked and profound naturales. He then performed
classy toreo en redondo at his pleasure with either hand. This was vintage
Ponce, using his prodigious technique to solve the problems posed by the bull
and then relying on his artistic ability to construct an emotive faena. An
effective sword gave way to an ear.
Enrique’s second bull was of the putrid
variety, weak and docile it was the antithesis of the notion of a toro bravo.
Enrique persevered with the animal, presenting the lures at mid-height in an
attempt at making it charge, but it was pointless. He killed with an estocada caida
and was awarded with a generous ovation.
The third bull of the afternoon was weak with
an unemotive charge. Manzanares spent a great deal of time trying to perform a
worthwhile faena with it but it was difficult with such raw material. There
were some good passes, given the sheer sum of muletazos the odd one or two were
bound to be worthwhile but, despite the music playing and the crowd’s cheers,
the faena left me unmoved. Manzanares was sure of himself throughout the
performance and worked closely to the bull. He did well to keep the crowd’s
attention despite the bull’s failings and concluded with circulares and a
desplante with the telefono.
Manzanares’ final bull was noble and insipid.
However, José Mari has the class and aesthetic to give such bland charge
emotion. His derechazos were silky, although they could have been performed
closer to the bull, and well linked. This is not the tauromaquia that we want
to see, a degenerated ballet before a non-entity of a bull, but when faced with
such lemons, at least we were served lemonade. A sizeable minority petitioned
for an ear following an estocada, which was not attended by the president.
The corrida had been presented as the celebration
of two Valencian heroes, but was characterised by the dull string of Juan
Pedros. Ironically, the type of bull that prevented Ponce from celebrating his
twenty fifth anniversary with the brilliance it deserved, allowed El Soro to manage the lidia and take
Valencia back to the eighties and the height of sorismo. José María Manzanares was the third wheel among all the
celebration, and was encumbered by the poor bulls as much as Ponce.
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