The view from
the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I have watched on TV.
Garcigrande & Domingo Hernandez Bulls for Finito de Córdoba, El Juli & Miguel Ángel Perera.
Here we are at the final instalment of Las Fallas’ corridas – there are of
course two novilladas left, and I am interested in assessing the junior
escalafón, but this was our last chance to calibrate the senior escalafón for
the moment. Our warm up act today was Finito
de Córdoba. I must admit Finito
is a guilty pleasure of mine. While I recognise that his career has been
compromised by his own alarming inconsistency, it would be remiss not to value
his long and elegant toreo when it does appear. I never go to the plaza
expecting anything from el Fino, but
when he delivers, usually in a small town ring where the pressure is off, he is
a joy to behold. Last year he did well in Valencia and has therefore been
rewarded with the opening slot on the feria’s big day. El Juli and Perera are arguably the two toreros that are battling
for the head of the figuras’ table. Perera will aim to keep his status as the
leading figura, while El Juli is no
doubt setting his sights on taking this position (el toreo’s championship belt
if you will) from Perera. However they lack the ability to attract the big
crowds – it was therefore disappointing, although perhaps expected, that the
ring was not full. There is a lesson to be drawn from this, but I am not sure
what that might be at the moment. Let us then leaving the pondering to one side
for the moment, and begin to assess the corrida.
The afternoon began with a sparkling series of
verónicas by Finito, the Domingo
Hernandez bull charged with class and impetus allowing Finito to perform an elegant, profound and slow recibo capotero.
The genuflected media to conclude the greeting was a fitting sign off. El Juli intervened in quites with a
bright couple of chicuelinas. The bull retained its mobility and nobility into
the muleta, but Finito was unable to
time and dominate it appropriately during the first couple of series en redondo
with the right hand. The animal was classier and had a longer charge on the
left side, which allowed Finito to
perform two very profound and low series of naturales, the second of which was
capped with an exquisite kikirikí. This was the emotive and elegant Finito that we had come to see. Back on
the right side, Finito was able to
get the measure extract some long and well timed pass to complete his faena –
the full sword led to an unsuccessful petition for an ear, in light of some of
the ears that have been granted in the feria, an award for Finito would not have been inappropriate.
Finito’s second bull was a beautiful burraco, I
absolutely adore this colour coat. The bull reached the muleta with an edge of
nerve which allowed Finito to perform
some emotive series with the right hand characterised by his elegant style.
However, the edge of nerve also caused inconsistency in its charge and
therefore Finito did not engage fully
with the bull and the faena lacked continuity. Perhaps a more confident Finito might have been able to extract
more toreo from the bull. Even so, the whistles from certain sections of the
crowd as he concluded with some passes de castigo were not warranted.
El Juli was able to craft a wonderful faena with the
second bull. The animal displayed certain weakness in the opening tercios, but El Juli and his cuadrilla gave it the
appropriate treatment in order to conserve its energy. The strong wind was no
deterrent to El Juli who opted to
construct his faena in the centre of the ring; combatting the wind by lowering
his hand to such an extent that over half of the muleta dragged across the
sand. The bull was able to cope with such dominance during El Juli’s opening series of nicely linked derechazos. El Juli’s concept of toreo is basic but
emphatic, he seeks to take the bull as slow, as long and as low as his muleta
allows. Thoroughly carefully timed and well-structured toreo fundamental he
built his performance on this foundation with ever greater intensity. Once the
bull was utterly dominated and fixated on his muleta, he concluded his faena a
handful of roblesinas that served to bring the crowd to a climax. An effective sword led to an award of two
deserved ears.
The gale continued to blow as El Juli mounted his muleta to face the
fifth bull. He opened the faena de muleta with a dominant string of doblones to
savour and took the bull to the centre of the ring to begin toreo en redondo
with the left hand. It was extremely difficult to control the muelta as it
flapped like a flag in the breeze, nevertheless, El Juli managed a profound couple of series of naturales. Taking
the muleta with the right hand, the controlling toreo fundamental continued; El Juli once again holding the muelta
extremely low to minimise the wind’s interference. The faena continued, based
on toreo fundamental with either hand, the muletazos flowed long and slow, and
the faena built to greater intensity as the passes became ever longer and
slower. The bull’s main virtue was its duration, its charge was good, but not
exceptional, yet its stamina, aided by El
Juli’s prodigious technique, allowed for an extremely long faena. With
toreo fundamental of such quality, there was no need for an arrimón, just the odd
adorno to conclude each series. The highlight of which was as an insultingly dominant
pase del desdén. A full and effective sword capped what had been the faena de
la feria thus far.
The third bull of the corrida was noble, but
distracted. It would follow the lure nicely at the start of the pass, but lose
interest half way and leave the torero’s jurisdiction with its head in the
clouds. With such raw material Perera was unable to perform consistently worthy
toreo en redondo; his series were well timed but their linking suffered due to
the bull’s condition. Faced with such problems, he opted for one of his
characteristic arrimones. His figure of eight toreo was executed with pure
stillness and followed by a series of exciting luquesinas which moved the crowd
and contributed to the ear that he received.
Perera was able to cut another ear from the
closing bull and therefore sealed his exit on shoulders alongside El Juli. Clearly motivated by his cartel
partner’s triumph, Perera began the faena with both knees on the ground performing
passes por alto that were not mere muleta flaps, but aimed to control the bull
through the pass. This dramatic opening series concluded with two passes en redondo
and a circular. This was probably the most controlled and emotive toreo de rodillas
since Cesár Jímenez’s heyday. Perera’s controlled toreo continued once on his
feet in the centre of the ring. He was able to tame both of his opponents (the
bull and the wind) with a well-timed muleta that allowed him to build his
characteristic faena. That is, well linked, supremely still toreo en redondo,
which on this occasion was wonderfully slow, concluded with confidently
executed ojedismo. The bull was
classy, but lacked stamina. Nevertheless, it lasted long enough for Perera to
perform an emotive faena and showcase is superiority over the bull.
One last note in favour of the Garcigrande
bulls. Today they showed why they are favoured by the figuras; their behaviour
was an excellent mix of class and mobility which enabled good toreo and created
emotion. The encaste Domecq takes some criticism from aficionados (rightly so,
some of the bulls it produces are very poor), however, it is partly a victim of
its own success. The quality of the leading Domecq ranches is obscured by the
scores of ganaderías that have been created from Juan Pedro Domecq’s seed, many
of which are terribly inconsistent. Perhaps if we were fed a steady diet of
varied encastes, the good Domecqs would be correctly valued.
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