The view from the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I
have watched on TV.
Victoriano del Río bulls for El Juli and Miguel Ángel Perera
Until a few years ago, the Beneficencia Corrida
felt different. Las Ventas would be decked with special decorative items and
the corrida itself took place after the hectic San Isidro. Today’s corrida is
attractive on paper, but it does not feel special.
It is another of the thirty-one consecutive taurine spectacles that are held in
Madrid from early May to early June. I would welcome for the current
programming of the Corrida de Beneficencia to be reconsidered – let it be the
jewel in the taurine crown just before the summer, make Las Ventas shine again.
Of course, no matter the frills, any corrida that is as poor as today’s has
been would soon lose its lustre. As consecutively poor bulls emerged from the
pens, collective hopes for the corrida were dashed; let us assess how the
spectacle played out.
The opening bull was a nervy, mobile animal that
had an emotive and incessant charge. El
Juli gave it a long, clean faena during which the bull kept following the
lure with desire. It lacked the class to allow for a reposed performance,
nevertheless El Juli gave us a good
faena as a curtain raiser. He began with low, long and pleasing doblones, taking
the bull to the centre of the ring and testing its charge with a view to
beginning toreo fundamental. The faena itself was primarily based on toreo en
redondo with either hand; El Juli
gave a string of series during a long faena and the only variety was a pase
cambiado in the tercio to begin a mid-faena series. All the passes were
characterised by being low, clean and well linked, everything was impeccably
timed, the bull’s horns barely touched the cloth, and exceedingly low, the
bull’s nervy charged needed this dominant low toreo. The protests from the usual
suspects accompanied the faena, and seemed to get on Julian’s back, but, to my
mind, the faena would have deserved an ear had El Juli’s sword been effective.
El Juli’s second bull had a disconcerting
charge. It lowered its head nicely and committed to the charge, however, it was
inconsistent, ultimately lacking class. This led to a faena with two distinct
parts. The first part of the faena, consisted of El Juli trying to tease a faena from the bull. He tempered its
nerve with a low hand, but the animal’s uneven charge meant that for each good,
moving pass, there was another rough muletazo. However, slowly, but
purposefully, El Juli managed to
impose his toreo on the bull and the faena took flight over the second part.
Above all, the closing couple of series en redondo were excellent. The last one
particularly so, four low, slow and profound derechazos linked to a cambio de
mano and a superlative natural. Beautifully controlled toreo. Julián managed an
almost full estocada, which cost him a pitonazo in his armpit. Another solid
performance from El Juli, although I
am sure his aim for the afternoon was to deliver an emphatic, rather than
solid, afternoon.
The fifth bull was a lacklustre animal that left
Julián without the chance to deliver the faena and triumph that his pass
through San Isidro needed. The animal’s main deficiency was its plain and dismal
manner. Its charge conveyed no emotion and was entirely devoid of charge. El Juli tried to apply his well-timed
and dominant muleta to try and polish the bull’s charges, but it was not
possible.
Perera’s first bull displayed a bland disinterest
during the tercio de pics, but this turned to piquant mobility during the
banderillas – here’s hoping that it would preserve the powerful charge during
the faena de muleta. The animal displayed a lack of focus during the early
tanda of doblones, it was a nervy manso. Unfortunately, the manso was more
prevalent than the nerve so as soon as Perera managed to focus it on his muleta
the bull los interest and its charge lacked all vigour or desire. Faced with
such raw material, there is little that Miguel Ángel could do.
The fourth bull was the first that allowed for any
capote work of note. Thus far the corrida had been disinterested during the
tercio de pics, and quites would have been out of place. El Juli opened with four excellent chicuelinas, open stanced and
low, they were inimitably El Juli.
This was Perera’s bull and he did not want to let his right of reply pass; Miguel
Ángel performed two clean tafalleras and four excellent gaoneras each of which
were slow and worked close to the body. The faena’s opening gambit was vintage
Perera, some estatuarios, followed by deeply emphatic toreo en redondo. The
first two series of derechazos were excellent, two perfect examples of his low,
slow, long and perfectly linked toreo fundamental. It seemed like we were in
for a good faena, but the bull lost interest. It became distinctly rajado and
further toreo was impossible. Perera tried to keep the animal focussed on the
muelta, but it was in vain.
By the time the sixth bull came out of the pens we
had been deeply disappointed by the behaviour of its five brothers – this
animal was not to be the one to save its ranches reputation, rather, it was
returned to the pens for displaying manifest weakness. It was replaced by a
Montalvo sobrero that did little to raise the hope of the disenchanted crowd. A
dull listless bull to close an underwhelming Corrida de Beneficencia.
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