The view from the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I have watched on TV.
Daniel Ruíz bulls for Morante de la Puebla, El Juli & Alejando Talavante
The corrida opened with a
whimper. Morante’s first bull lacked
class and strength; the typical bull that we recognise, and exasperate at, as
soon as it charges at the lures. Morante’s
veronicas were acceptable, greeted with token oles, concluded with a delicate
media. Muleta in hand, José Antonio gave the animal a series on either side,
which confirmed the bull was not up to much. The public jeered, but I was
grateful. I am sick and tired of toreros artificially elongating lidias when it
is plain that the bull offers no chance at toreo. We should thank Morante for not wasting our time and
stoically accepting a bronca to save exhausting our patience. Today, he even
killed well, what more could we want? Oh, yes, a bull that showed even the
slightest evidence of its brave heritage would have been nice.
Morante
was able to display his creative verve with the fourth bull. The opening capote
work was variedly attractive rather than profound, nevertheless, his farol,
tijerillas, chicuelinas and serpentina had a wonderful baroque air. With the
muleta, José Antonio was focussed on the quality of individual passes, giving
them extra length and depth which necessitated him to readjust his footing
between each pass. Morante’s
performance was a collection of quality passes rather than intense series – he did
manage to bookend his work with a very good series at the start and at the end
of the faena. The bull was average, it did not have a particularly emotive
manner, but it would follow the lowers intently when these were presented
correctly. Morante’s faena was
intermittent, like his isolated passes, but sufficient to have deserved an ear
had his sword work been effective.
The second bull’s entry
into the arena was promising, it charged with nerve allowing El Juli to perform
a smooth and soft cluster of veronicas. By the muleta third the bull’s charge
had further improved into a strong, nervy and emotive mobility – it followed
the lures as long as they would take him and did so with desire and a low head.
It was the ideal bull for El Juli’s dominant
muleta. El Juli stood up to the animal
to torear wonderfully with the right hand, linking the bull’s charges precisely
into long and deeply moving series. The first three series were excellent, the
bull charging with a rarely seen impetus and El Juli able to control its course en redondo at his pleasure (he
had mistakenly started by estatuarios during which he was nearly caught by the
bull – this was a bull to be dominated, not accompanied). It was natural that
the bull’s charge would wane as the faena progressed, but it still retained the
commitment to charge and El Juli, in
turn, shortened the distance, concluding the faena with a very closely worked
arrimón and some luquesinas. Notwithstanding the pinchazo, I would have
petitioned for two earsthe crowd, however, only asked for one, which the
president duly granted. I was critical of the first bull, it is only fair that
I take might hat off to the ganadero for producing a bull as emotive as this
second one – I would not have objected at all had it been granted a vuelta al
ruedo.
El
Juli’s second bull was sweeter than his opener, also
possessing the mobility to allow for another excellent faena. Julián was active
in quites and gave an open stanced series of lopecinas, rematadas low. El Juli could see that the bull was
good, though slightly weak. He therefore began the faena with mid-height
derechazos, linked into a number of emotive series – gently and smoothly
linked, caressing the bull, giving it the confidence to continue its charge.
After this prodding start, Julián felt the confidence to challenge the bull
with low naturales; the animal accepted this proposition and El Juli was able to explore and display
his low, long concept of toreo. The faena concluded with a long and very closely
worked arrimón, completing El Juli’s
dominance over proceedings. A very good faena to a completely different bull.
The pinchazo was no obstacle to the crowd petitioning for the second ear, but
the president only saw fit to grant one.
Talavante began his faena
to the third bull with estatuarios. These were pleasingly executed, but the
bull charged in fits and starts resting emotion from proceedings. He began
toreo en redondo with the left hand, with a long series of naturales. This is
one of Talavante’s fortes, he links toreo en redondo wonderfully; he is conscious
that a series needs to be long and always seeks to link as many passes as
possible. His series of derechazos followed a similar pattern; he liked six
redondos, a natural and a chest pass seamlessly – a series that started
discreetly increased in emotion as he built pass upon pass. He allied his
well-conceived toreo en redondo with his genial, creative remates – a
talavantina here, trincherazo there and a pase de las flores to finish. The
bull’s charge was inconsistent and lacked class – but Talavante’s fresh toreo
kept the crowd’s interest throughout. He finished with manoletinas in the
centre of the ring followed by a slow and sure sword thrust, also performed in
the centre of the ring, which allowed him to cut an ear.
The sixth bull also gave
Alejandro the opportunity to perform a creative and meandering lidia. He took a
leaf out of the early El Juli cook
book managing a pleasing quite by escobinas. Talavante’s sui generis faena began with a pedresina on his knees in the centre
of the ring. The performance that followed was unique. Talavante combining
fundamental toreo with his own take on various types of remates, recortes and
cambios. He incorporated a series of bernadinas in among his concluding arrimón
(rather than as the typical pre-determined encore following the sword change).
His estocada was slowly executed and gave him the chance to cut the second ear
he needed to join El Juli on
shoulders.
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