The view from
the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I have watched on TV.
Nuñez del
Cuvillo Bulls for Rivera Ordoñez, José María Manzanares and David Galván.
A glamorous corrida for
the Friday of the feria. Rivera was an underwhelming choice to open
proceedings, he was not an intriguing torero when he retired a few years ago,
and he is certainly holds no interest on his return. Given his off the sand
fame he will be chosen by figuras as their opening act of choice during the
season, much to the detriment of the afición. José Mari, still suffering some
of the after effects caused by his bout of gastroenteritis, had his last chance
to leave his mark on the feria. Moreover, in the scheme of Manzanares’ temporada, a triumph in Sevilla, his favourite plaza,
would set down a marker to the other figuras.
David Galván is a young torero from San Fernando who, despite his promising
path as a novillero, had not managed to establish himself in the senior
escalafón. He has given us some heartening performances in Algeciras and Los
Barrios last year, but Galván needs a strong performance in big feria before
these opportunities dry up.
The Cuvillo bulls offered
an excellent spectacle. Yesterday we had a tough and emotive string of
Victorino bulls; today’s animals provided excellent fodder for good faenas de
muleta. They were noble and obedient, but charged with enough verve to create
emotion. Moreover, despite their compliant condition, they would not forgive a
mistake and gave each of Manzanares and
Galván serious looking tosses. Unfortunately, the bulls did not receive the
treatment that one might have hoped and the only real memorable moments of the
corrida came from Manzanares’ muleta.
Rivera, as we feared, was
poor. I was about to say disappointing, but that might imply certain
expectation. His bull’s offered him noble charges but his toreo to both bulls
was entirely cold. Fran was clean and professional, because, after all, we are
talking about a torero with twenty odd years’ experience. However, despite a
couple of neatly timed series to his second bull, the only conclusion is that
both bulls had been wasted.
Manzanares’
afternoon was complex. Had he killed swiftly we would undoubtedly be writing
about a well-deserved four ear triumph, but there is the inescapable niggle
that he was below the level of both bulls. Manzanares
has become a polarising torero. His supporters are drawn to his emphatic elegance
and uterly effective sword, while his detractors argue that his toreo tends to
expel the bull during the pass and his series are too short. As always, the
truth lies in the middle, as we breakdown his performance this afternoon we can
unpack the essence, and short comings of his toreo.
His first bull,
Encumbrado by name, was superb. It would follow the lure long and true, obey
each toque of the muleta and wiling repeat charges. It was brave, but without
being suffocating. A supremely classy bull that no doubt approaches the ideal
the Cuvillo seeks. Given the plaza, and the torero, it is impossible not to
think of Arrojado, the excellent Cuvillo bull pardoned in La Maestranza in 2011
– Encumbrado perhaps lacked the verve of Arrojado, but he was still an
excellent specimen.
With him Manzanares was able to showcase all the
positives of his tauromaquia. Given the ease with which the bull could be
toreado, Manzanares was able to focus
all his energy on producing his classy and elegant toreo. The series en redondo
flowed smoothly during the long faena, principally with the right hand and
underscored by Manzanares’ classic
aesthetic; each successive series was more emotive than the previous one as he
constructed a faena worthy of two orejas. José Mari’s accessorial toreo was
equally beautiful, especially the authoritative trincherazos and eternal
cambios de mano. It had been a very good faena, but there was something
missing. Despite the aesthetic value of the faena, the series were too short,
three derechazos and the remate, and he kept the bull too far from his body at
each juncture. Therefore, although the faena was worth a strong triumph, it was
not entirely fulfilling.
Manzanares
improved
with his second bull. It lacked the insulting quality of his first, but was
still an excellent animal. His series en redondo continued to be overreliant on
the right hand and too short - I feel that Manzanares
seeks to give a minimum amount of passes en redondo and cuts them short
just as the series should reach its emotive peak, yet he saves himself with his
wonderful remates. However, he injected greater emotion to his work with this
bull and performed close toreo. Moreover, he misjudged a desplante and suffered
a serious tossing which added an epic element to this faena. He opted for an
estocada recibiendo and would surely have secured two ears had he not pinchado.
Despite his shortcomings, I still value Manzanares’
contribution to the escalafón. Although we can poke holes in his toreo, his
elegant manner is to be enjoyed.
Galván, for his part,
also had an inconsistent performance. He was markedly below the level required
to his first bull. Cuvillo had given us another noble and classy bull, which
would compliantly obey the lures. However, David never managed to get the right
distance or positioning to help it repeat its charges. He was therefore unable
to link toreo en redondo and the bull’s worth was lost in a sea of single and
unfulfilling passes.
It seemed that the plot
was following the same arc with the sixth bull. The animal was not as good as
its five brothers, but still offered quality charges. The faena, and he
afternoon, was seemingly dissipating until Galván suffered a spectacular toss.
It initially seemed that he was injured, but David dusted himself off and
produced an emotive arrimón that helped justify his afternoon’s work. However, worryingly
for Galván’s career prospects, despite the excitement created by his arrimón,
his toreo had not produced the triumph that he needed to develop.
No comments:
Post a Comment