The view from the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I
have watched on TV.
Victoriano del Río bulls for Sebastián
Castella, Iván Fandiño & Alejandro
Talavante
This is the first figura cartel of the
feria. Castella will open proceedings, looking to consolidate in Pamplona his
position as the in-form figura of the summer and set up a month that will
culminate in his mid-August encerrona in El Puerto de Santa María. Aside from his
triumphs, the most notable development in Castella’s toreo this spring has been
the qualitative improvement of his toreo en redondo. He has always been a supremely
brave torero, who would work as close to the bull as the next torero; however,
his toreo en redondo has gained depth over the last year culminating in his
wonderful faena this San Isidro.
Talavante, gave us a wonderfully creative
faena in Madrid, but was unable to complete his work with the sword; he will no
doubt be looking to continue his current streak of two ear faeans based on his
improvised toreo. Alicante and Algeciras were able to enjoy Alejandro in June.
Will Pamplona follow?
Fandiño’s position this season is entirely
different from his two colleagues on the cartel. He has suffered through a dark
few months, marked, above all, by his failed encerrona in Madrid. An
unfortunate afternoon that has seemingly affected him on each of his following
outings. Iván has been on the bubble of becoming a figura for a number of
years, this summer, he will need to triumph to at least retain his position of
“leading prospect” – a number of emerging toreros have given us strong
performances during the first half of the season, Fandiño needs to keep up.
Castella’s opened the afternoon with an archetypal
twenty-first century faena. The bull defined itself during the opening tercios
as classy but fragile – what some might term an archetypal twenty-first century
bull. In the circumstances, Fandiño’s untidy quite by tafalleras was
unnecessary and unhelpful; both for the lidia and the torero, a failed quite
never looks good. Happily, the bull found a depth of bravery and strength
during the tercio de muleta, sustaining itself during a long faena, charging
with class and acceptable vigour. Castella began his muleta work with a couple
of passes cambiados, followed by some low remates. After the dramatic
beginning, t the faena’s crux was based on series of toreo fundamental,
principally on the right hand, of decreasing intensity. Castella’s toreo was
long, smooth and well linked. His good timing and soft manner, presenting the
muleta with barely a toque, helping the bull when its strength might have
failed. Sebastián took the left hand too late in the performance to be able to
link a full series, nevertheless, the naturales, given de uno en uno, were well
executed and signalled the start of his arrimón and figure of eight toreo – the
de rigueur conclusion for the archetypal twenty-first century faena. Castella completed
his performance with series of manoletinas after taking the real sword, and a
beautifully executed and effective volapíe. The ear granted was deserved.
The fourth bull was strong, but charged
with less class and, once it felt dominated, lost interest in charging.
Castella gave a long faena, which faded significantly as it wore on and the
bull’s initial vigour waned. He would have needed a signature and emphatic
series to re-engage the crowd, but this was not forthcoming. Castella began
with a series of sober doblones, with the intention of tempering and dominating
the bull’s charge. The opening series of derechazos were well linked and
characterised by the length of the individual passes, giving us hope for the faena.
They lacked repose because of bull’s nature, rather than Castella’s failing.
However, when we needed the faena to kick on, the bull lost interest. Castella
was able to continue toreando, but the bull’s dwindling desire rested emotion
from the faena. He might have cut a cheap ear with an effective estocada, but
any chance was lost with a couple of pinchazos; the first of which was low and
the second of which cost Sebastián a pitonazo on his left hand.
The afternoon’s other minor triumph was
secured by Iván Fandiño to the second bull. He gave us a serious, sober faena
based almost exclusively around toreo fundamental – there were no concessions
to the gallery today. The bull was good, giving Iván a succession of
repetitive, emotive charges. Fandiño channelled these into a number of well
linked series of nicely timed and long muletazos. There was no need for any
pyro, the toreo fundamental sufficed, but, this being Pamplona, Iván gave a
series of kneeling manoletinas before the swrod thrust. Fandiño capped his
performance with an emotively executed estocada, with tardy effects, and cut an
ear that will do his morale the world of good. This was not a vintage showing
by Fandiño, but it certainly showed an upturn in form from his previous
showings this year. The Madrid encerrona on Palm Sunday seemingly cost Fandiño
his sitio, this ear might have helped him regain it. He has a second afternoon
this feria, tomorrow, with the Fuente Ymbros, to show whether this is the case.
The fifth bull barely moved and a faena of
note was scarcely possible. Iván spent too long trying in vain to extract
passes from this dry well of a bull. Given that I wrote about archetypal
twenty-first century faenas in repect of Castella’s first bull, I would say
that spending too long in front of bulls that offer no possibility of success
is one of the maladies of the twenty-first century lidia. Faenas today take too
long, I know that the crowd jeers if they perceive that the torero has cut
shorst a faena. However, we are deceiving ourselves if we think that just by
spending time in front of a bull the torero will miraculous make it charge
(Ponce excepted, of course).
Alejandro Talavante faced two bulls today
but had no material whatsoever to be able to express his toreo. Two lacklustre
animals that came and went with little desire to charge and wound up boring the
crowd and the torero. Two of the three worst bulls from a pretty poor corrida. The
most notable part of his afternoon was that the band struck a pasodoble towards
the end of his first non-entity of a faena, after
he had taken the real sword. I know is Pamplona, but the conductor should
really be paying more attention.
Victoriano del Río has displayed excellent
consistency over the past few years. However, this season he has given us a
succession of poor lots, it is always a pity when a previously successful
ganadería goes through a poor patch. The first couple of toros were acceptable,
but their behaviour would only have been encouraging within the context of a
more successful season.
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