The view from the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I
have watched on TV.
Juan Pedro Domecq bulls for Finito de Córdoba, Alejandro Talavante
and Daniel Luque.
The crowd was lucky that the first bull fell in Finito’s lot. It was a noble bull that
followed the lures with its head low, but whose charge conveyed no emotion. The
animal required an elegant and artistic torero to supplant the emotion that its
charge lacked. Finito was able to
channel the bull’s few positive qualities into an acceptable faena. It was an
intermittent and long performance, underscored by Finito’s elegant toreo. The faena lacked continuity because of the
bull’s condition, but with the odd elegant remate here, and some good series
there, Finito constructed a pleasant curtain
raiser.
The fourth bull had all of the shortcomings of the
first bull, without any of its upside. It only allowed Finito to give a couple of pleasingly elegant series before the
bull’s charges expired.
Alejandro Talavante’s opener displayed a vibrant
charge in the early tercios, a charge full of vigour and emotion. Talavante was
able to immediately capture its qualities and gave us some remates to savour
with the capote. He began the faena with no test passes, diving into toreo al
natural – this is one of Talvante’s strengths, he sees the bull early in the
lidia and, if he feels it is apt, does not procrastinate and sets out to torear
en redondo as soon as possible. The first two series were well linked and
silky, Talavante showing that he has one of the escalafón’s best left hands.
The bull began to wane by the third series, this time on the right hand,
although Alejandro was able to save this series with a wonderful cambio de mano
and chest pass. Unfortunately, this was a sign that the bull’s charge was
exhausted. It barely last another few passes. A disappointing end to a faena
that had early promise.
Talavante’s performance with the capote on the
fifth bull was another treat. He welcomed the animal into the arena with closed
stance veronicas, concluding the recibo with some tijerillas and subsequently
peppering the lidia with creative remates that looked plucked from La Lidia. Alejandro was in inspired form, starting on
his knees with linked passes with the front and reverse of the muleta. It was
an attractive start that took a dramatic edge when Talavante, from nowhere,
pulled off an arrucina on his knees – there was barely any space for the bull
to pass, but Talavante managed it and brought the crowd to its feet. Alejandro
Talavante, who can be a wonderful orthodox torero, proceeded to give us a faena
that was completely unorthodox. In this respect it was similar to his excellent
faena to a Cuvillo in Zaragoza a few years ago. The toreo en redondo was good: silky,
well linked, and moving. However, the crowd was seduced by Talavante’s creative
touches, the arrucinas interspersed among the naturales, the cambios de mano
and the pase cambiado with which he capped the concluding manoletinas. An
enchanting faena from an enchanting torero. A great pity that he took three
entries to claim an estocada because the performance may very well have yielded
two ears. Talavante has left us with a couple of memorable performances this
feria, the type of performances befitting of a figura.
As expected, Daniel Luque, left us a handful of
memorable lances with the capote on his opening bull. However, the highlight of
the early tercios were the two excellent pairs of banderillas placed by Abraham
Neiro. This was another bull that galloped purposefully during the early part
of the lidia, allowing us to dream of a faena. Luque began with estauarios and
was dramatically tossed by the bull. As the bull passed him between each horn
it was a miracle that Luque escaped unharmed. Back on his feet, Luque called
the bull from distance and gave three good series of derechazos – the third of
which was particularly low, slow and well linked. Al natural, the toreo was
equally emotive; the bull stayed short on occasion, and Daniel lost the
appropriate steps between each pass to allow him to continue smoothly. Aside
from the nicely linked passes, the keys to the faena were the stillness and the
closeness with which he worked with the bull. Daniel capped his faena was some
excellent luquesinas and was heading for a triumph. I thought that his
defective estocada two descabellos might have cost him the prize, but the crowd
petitioned for an ear and the president granted it. The faena was very good,
and might have even yielded two ears with a good sword thrust, but the sword
work was so poor that I feel the reward should have been left as a vuelta al
ruedo.
Luque’s wonderful capote returned in the quite to
the sixth bull (a Parladé substitute), profound veronicas, concluded with a
dreamily slow media – an absolute joy. Daniel was determined to finish his
feria on a high note, and called the bull from the centre of the ring for the
first series of derechazos, a clean and well linked series finished with an
excellent trincherazo and a long chest pass. The bull’s charge was classy, with
an edge of spice, it had to be taken gently through each pass and timed to
perfection, if it hooked the muleta its charge would turn from class to
violence. Luque’s toreo en redondo was very clean, very slow and well linked,
principally based on the bull’s right side, which was the better horn. The
principal problem was that from mid-faena onwards, Luque’s timing failed him,
the bull hooked the cloth a couple of times and the emotion built with the
early series was lost. This is the type of faena that holds Luque back from making
the next step in his career. This bull was there to be cuajado, but, Daniel
fell just short. He might have still cut an ear had the estocada in the centre of
the ring not been preceded by a pinchazo. However, the animal called for an
empahtic faena, which had not been delivered. Nevertheless, I do not want to
come across as being too downbeat on Luque. His afternoon contained a great
deal of good toreo with the cape and the muleta, Daniel just needs to find consistency
in order to develop from the eternal promise into a figura.
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