The view from the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I
have watched on TV.
Jandilla bulls for Juan José Padilla,
Pepe Moral & Alberto López Simón
Today’s cartel is Pamplona in a nutshell.
Padilla is revered in Navarra; if we were to subscribe to geographical
stereotypes in toreo, we would say that Juan José is more northern bravery than
southern art. Moreover, his jovial (some might say uncouth) tremendismo strikes
a particular chord with Pamplona’s equally jovial, or, again, as some might
say, uncouth, peñas. Regardless, the plaza was full of pirate flags, ready to cheer
their hero with the now familiar “illa, illa, illa, Padilla maravilla” chant.
Padilla, I feel, loses his inhibitions in Pamplona, he is able to rip lose as
the Ciclón de Jerez and display his spectacular concept of toreo. Although the other
two toreros have little, or no, cartel in Pamplona, they are precisely the type of emerging toreros for
whom Pamplona always finds a space in a cartel. With contracts in most of the
summer’s ferias being almost exclusively limited to the roster of seven or
eight figuras that have been sitting pretty for eight years, Pamplona has given
an opportunity to Moral – who impressed in Sevilla and Madrid this spring – and
López Simón – who has opened the Puerta Grande of Las Ventas twice already this
season.
Padilla’s opening bull was a disconcerting
opponent. It displayed an ungainly charge during the opening tercios that
betrayed a lack of strength. By the muleta, its charge was completely
inconsistent. On the positive side the bull was willing to charge and repeated with
certain class. However, its charge was erratic, hampered by its clumsiness and
edge of masedumbre, underscored by weakness. None of these defects were strong
enough in themselves to negate the bull’s encouraging elements, but they
greatly hampered Padilla. He was never quite able to get the correct rhythm and
the faena dissipated without any pass of note. The highlight of the lidia were
two sober, cleanly executed pair of banderillas de poder a poder, Juan José
tried to close the tercio with the fireworks of a par al violin, but this pair
fell too low.
The fourth bull was a lacklustre animal;
it displayed no danger or nerve and lacked any class or verve. Padilla, who did
not place banderillas on this occasion, tried to perform an orthodox faena with
little success. Juan José was unable to display any of his bright tremendismo
today; no doubt affected by his lot’s dull manner, the Ciclón was barely able
to muster a stiff breeze.
Pepe Moral’s opening bull was demanding
but grateful. It needed a strong muleta to take it low and temper its strong charge;
when the torero was able to do so, it repaid him with long, emotive and repetitive
charges. However, as soon as the torero showed any doubt or let the bull catch
the cloth, its charge turned sour and violent. Moral’s faena ebbed and flowed
as he managed to link a few passes, before an inevitable enganchón collapsed
the emotion he had previously built. He tried to offer variety with artistic
remates, but these were initially out of step with the bull’s violent charge.
As the faena developed, and the bull’s charge tempered, Moral’s toreo improved.
He was able to link his series completely, and showed his pure concept of low,
long muletazos; he continued to intersperse creative remates, but a belmontine
molinete is at odds with his stripped down, powerful concept. The faena was
long, and might have yielded an ear but for disastrous work with sword and
descabello; I lingered on what might have been had Pepe been able to dominate
the bull from the beginning of the faena.
Moral’s faena to the fifth bull opened with
emotively linked estatuarios. He gave the bull distance when calling it for the
first series of derechazos, these were clean, but the bull displayed a short
and disinterested charge making it difficult to link an entire series with
emotion. Moral tried the bull’s left side, but this horn was impossible; it added
a rough nature to its already short charge. Despite its difficulties, Pepe
Moral displayed assuredness and was above the level offered by the bull; he
felt at ease with the bull, to such an extent that the faena was a great deal
longer than it should have been. This afternoon showed, once again, that in
toreo it is sometimes easier to show dominance when the bull seems poor and
reticent to charge than when it is quick and brave. As always, the real difficulty
in toreo is tempering the charges of a mobile and brave bull. Pepe Moral was superior
to the immobile, choppy animal, but could not quite channel the charges of the nervy,
mobile, animal into consistent toreo. Nonetheless, he maintains credit in the
bank from his promising outings earlier this year.
López Simón has given us an excellent
afternoon – his performance earned him three ears, but the most meritorious
aspect of both of his faena was his consistent ability to link passes en
redondo. His first bull simply had no choice but to follow the muleta after
each pass, Alberto stayed still and was placed in precisely the correct
position to link each pass. On this technical foundation he built a deeply moving
faena based on his ability to create emotion throughout each series through his
incessantly linked toreo. He displayed a creative streak too, peppering his
faena with arrucinas and pases de las flores amongst the fundamental toreo.
López Simón had secured an ear, but he was determined for more and gave us a kitchen
sink of a conclusion comprising of an arrimón, toreo de rodillas and
bernadinas. Conceptually, they muddied the structure of the faena, but, from a
purely emotive perspective it was an ending worthy of Pamplona. His full estocada al encuentro fell slight
low, therefore despite its effectiveness the petition for the second ear was
declined.
Alberto sensed that the mobile nerve of
the sixth bull might serve him well and dedicated his performance to the crowd.
His opening estatuarios were cold, but he concluded this series with three
derechazos that certainly spiced up the crowd. López Simón continued with three
stirring, well linked series of derechazos – once again, the key was
positioning himself perfectly between each pass to force the bull to repeat its
charge. By the time he took the left hand the animal’s charge was waning and he
resorted to a circular to save the series – as we know, a good remate is key to
preserving the emotion built during a tanda. Back on the right hand, with the
bull losing mobility, he finished with an arrimón; individual derechazos,
combined with circulares and figure of eight toreo to excite the crowd in readiness
to petition for the triumph he needed for the Puerta Grande. After taking the
real sword he finished with some electric manoletinas that were, nevertheless,
concluded with a deep chest pass. A clean, smooth and effective estocada gave
way to another frenzied petition for two ears which, on this occasion were
granted. Three well earned ears that position López Simón among the leading emerging
toreros; although given the way the ferias are shaping, his only way in will
probably be through substitution.
No comments:
Post a Comment