The view from the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I
have watched on TV.
Salvador Domecq Bulls for Uceda
Leal, Diego Silveti & Jímenez Fórtes.
A listless Fidel San Román bull opened the corrida.
With such an opponenet, Uceda Leal was able to do little more that justify his
efforts with the muleta and take the sword. Moreoever, a wicked gale was
blowing over Las Ventas, making efforts to lure the bull to the muleta all the
more difficult. We were, however, able to enjoy Uceda’s wonderful estocada. He
stood close to the bull, presented the muleta low towards its nose and gave a
slow, full estocada.
The fourth bull was absolutely graceless. An
entirely lacklustre animal whose problems were caused by a lack of desire to
charge, rather than, as we always hope, by an excess of bravery and nerve.
Uceda Leal has the technical founding to acquit himself well, he was in control throughout the lidia, unfortunately, said lidia was completely
unattractive. For once, Uceda was ineffective with the sword and
descablleo. Uceda has crafted a long career on the basis of an elegant manner and an excellent sword, however I wonder the remaining shelf life for this torero.
The second bull, along with the rest of the
corrida, was from the title ranch, Salvador Domecq. The bull’s charge lacked
grace and although Silveti gave a number of series en redondo none of them
ignited the crowd. Silveri performed slightly better with. the left than the right, but also
got caught a couple of times by the bull due to mistiming the muletazos. It was
ultimately an insubstantial faena to a mediocre bull.
The fifth bull followed a similar. Silveti
was calm and controlled with the bull, but he was unable to create any work of
note thus completing Silveti's disappointing outing. An opportunity to torear in Las
Ventas is all well and good, however, if it to be a truly meaningful staging post in Silveti’s
career development, he had to take advantage of the opportunity and deliver a
solid performance. The way the fiesta is orgnanised, he might be able to parlay
family connections into further chances, however, on today’s showing, such
further opportunities will not be for strictly taurine motives.
Jímenez Fórtes welcomed the third bull into the
arena with a larga cambiada de rodillas a porta gayola – the larga was cleanly
executed and the good work with the cape followed as he took the bull toreado
from the tercio to the centre of the ring. The bull was tricky: it had a short
short charge, it took the muelta better low down than high and it would chop at
the muleta – to add to the difficulties, the wind continued to swirl around the
ring. Fórtes was decisive, he began with estatuarios, and quickly concluded the
series por bajo after the bull protested the high passes. The faena es redondo
was based around two well linked series with either hand. They key to Fórtes’
success was the valour to stay still and remain in the precise terrain to
provoke the bull for the next charge. Given the bull’s problems, the series were
not clean, but Jímenez displayed pleasing technical nuances that allowed him to
form the faena. He concluded with some chilling bernadinas, they were tight,
given in the middle of the ring and incorporating a unique cambio –
a very emotive conclusion, that preceded a full estocada. Jímenez was awarded an
ear for his work, earned by his valour.
Tragedy struck with the final bull of the
afternoon. Jímenez was beginning his second series of derechazos when the bull
tossed him and, once on the ground, sunk its horn just below the young torero’s
jaw. The sight of a visibly injured Fórtes being carried to the infirmary
bleeding from the neck was chilling. Thankfully, the horn did not sever any
major arteries and as I write Fórtes is recovering well.
Fórtes has shown that his toreo, based on stillness
and valour, has a place in the fiesta and he deserves space in the ferias that
have capacity for him. However, despite his youth, he has been greatly punished
by the bulls. Notwithstanding his Spartan bravery, I wonder how long he will
find the spirit to keep of dressing the suit of lights, to stay still and to
continue suffering gorings; his technique will need to develop so as to combine
his brave concept with a certain sense of self preservation.
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