The view from the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I have watched on TV.
Fuente Ymbro Bulls for César Jímenez, Paco Ureña & El Payo.
Another typical early San Isidro cartel; no figuras, rather three toreros at different stages of their carer, each with a curious back story and intrigue. We had the experienced torero, César Jímenez, who had the world at his feet in 2003 but never managed to develop into a lasting figura. César is a capable torero, but I fear that his time may have passed. Paco Ureña, despite his ten years of alternativa, has only recently risen to prominence and given us hope that there may be a bright future for him in the fiesta. It is unlikely that he will become a figura, but a few solid performances may open up some opportunities during the taurine summer. Octavio García El Payo is considered a figura in Mexico, but has flattered to deceive in Spain. El Payo gave us a good afternoon as a novillero in 2008’s San Isidro, but failed to deliver on the expectations his sparkling toreo had created.
The opening Fuente Ymbro bull possessed a noble and comfortable charge, with an element of mansedumbre that led it to wander from Jímenez’s jurisdiction after each pass. César was able to channel the classy charge into good individual passes, however he did not keep the bull sufficiently focussed on the lure for a complete series. A pity, because the couple of times he linked a couple of derechazos the crowd stirred. Most of the faena took place in the centre of the ring. As soon as César took it towards the boards he mounted the sword and managed a full estocada, which was trasera and tendida and therefore necessitate use of the descabello. As an aside, Jímenez had toreado with the real sword, the end of the faena was therefore not punctuated by the walk to the boards for to swap swords and grab a mouthful of water. From a structural perspective, and I will never get tired of stressing the importance of structure to a faena, using the real sword throughout is immensely beneficial to a performance.
Jímenez’s performance with the fourth bull was disconcerting. The bull had a dull and listless charge, but Jímenez did not put any emotional energy into his work. He was technical and cold, perfectly able to cope with the bull, but lacking the wherewithal to give his faena any intensity. With the amount of toreros fighting for contracts, and displaying their credentials, Jímenez fell short.
Paco Ureña’s first bull was spectacular in appearance and performance. A beautiful ensabanado bull that performed a striking tercio de varas, charging to the picador from distance and pushing low at the horse. Ureña realised the animal’s power and opted to begin the faena calling the bull from distance in the centre of the ring. The bull charged like a freight train and Ureña was able to time it well during the opening few series of derechazos, even managing a number of slow individual passes towards the end of each series. However, as the bull’s initial impetus started fading slightly, Ureña’s toreo fell off its emotional precipice. The bull maintained its brave charge, but it was time for the torero to get closer to it and tease well timed profound muletazos that the bull deserved. Ureña was unable to do so and the faena dissipated despite the bull’s continued deep charge. It was a bull worthy of a two ear faena, and Ureña fell short. To make matters worse, his work with the sword was poor.
The fifth bull lacked all of the vigour and nerve of Ureña’s previous opponent. Paco was solid and professional, displaying a willingness to please. However, the faena lacked any emotive hook. He did try to move the crowd with an arrimón, but this was fruitless. Like Jímenez, Ureña needed a strong performance in order to reinforce his petition for more contracts. Like Jímenez, he fell short. A brave and nervy bull is a double edged sword, Paco felt the sharp end of it today. I am not minded to ditch all my hopes for him on the back of one unfortunate afternoon, Lord knows that there are many toreros who will appear a great deal this season who have given us plenty of disappointing afternoons. However, he needs to give a stronger sense of his toreo next time.
El Payo’s opener displayed manso tendencies, but, if timed correctly, would charge with nobility and desire. Octavio understood the bull well and therefore managed to extract four very good series en redondo, two with each hand. It had been a very promising beginning both from a technical perspective and on an emotive level. It seemed that the faena may be heading for an oreja but structure failed him. Despite the compact and well-structured opening, the faena subsequently dissipated into a succession of passes that did not form part of the whole. Besides, the bull began to show more mansedumbre and El Payo was unable to reignite the emotive flame of his performance. Once again we saw the importance of structure in a faena. If we count the number of good passes and good series that El Payo gave, and even recall how his opening work moved us, we might conclude that the faena deserved an ear. However, when he took the sword his work felt unfulfilled, it lacked structure to give form to the emotion.
The final bull of the afternoon reached the muleta with a vacant charge. It was noble, it came and went, but ultimately conveyed on feeling. No doubt paying for a heavy pic and the voltereta it suffered during the early tercios. El Payo spent a long time, too long, trying to extract worthwhile toreo, but it was not to be. El Payo, without rounding off a stellar performance, caused a good impression. He certainly evidenced the development that had been suggested by his triumphant Mexican season, and may be ready to take his position in the Spanish taurine landscape. He is not there yet, Octavio was a level or two below that displayed by Juan Del Álamo and Pepe Moral the day before, and we wait to see how he can deal with a brave and challenging bull. Nevertheless, I retain the hope that El Payo can be the torero that we all wished to see develop following his afternoon with those La Quinta novillos all those San Isidros ago.
Fuente Ymbro continued its promising start to the year. Agitador, the wonderful second bull, will deservedly get all the plaudits, however, there were a couple of other bulls that allowed good toreo. Some might say that this is a poor return for a six bull corrida; I say that we will see plenty of car crash strings this spring and, on those afternoons, we will yearn for these Fuente Ymbros. Now, if only the figuras would get back to appearing on the same bill as Ricardo Gallardo’s bulls.
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