The view from the sofa, my thoughts on corridas I
have watched on TV.
Fuente Ymbro bulls for Miguel
Abellán, Miguel Ángel Perera & Iván Fandiño
Abellán welcomed the first bull in
emphatic fashion with three larga cambiadas de rodillas. Miguel Abellán will
never be an exquisite torero, his forte is bravery, determination, dominance
and spectacle – his opening gambit of the afternoon checked most of these boxes.
Miguel was active in quites, performing an acceptable series of chicuelinas
capped with a serpentina. The quite was bookended by a couple of light pics,
the second especially so. The bull seemed very noble, but lacking in strength
and desire. Perera closed the first tercio with a wonderful quite by
saltilleras, it was calm, controlled and smooth toreo. I once heard a good
aficionado, who never misses San Fermín, say that in order to triumph in
Pamplona a torero needs to start and end his performance in spectacular style
in order to hook the peñas. The focus the intervening toreo can drop a level or
two, the peñas will focus on the spectacle. Miguel therefore started with a
pase cambiado, followed by toreo on his knees and he ended the faena on his
knees once again. It was typical, engaging Abellán. However, the toreo fundamental,
although clean and correct, felt cold. The bull compliantly followed the lures,
but did so with an air of disinterest; therefore Miguel was able to give a
number of well linked series en redondo, none of which was truly moving.
Nevertheless, given the effective structure of his faena, Abellán’s full
estocada was enough to earn him an ear by numbers.
Miguel Abellán completed his triumphant
afternoon by cutting an ear from the fourth bull with a vibrant performance. If
he was fortunate to cut an ear from the first bull, he might count himself
unlucky not to have received two from this one. The bull was a nervy manso, it
threatened to rajarse throughout the lidia, but possessed just the amount of
nerve to stay, charge and to do so with emotion. Abellán gave a clean and well
linked faena en redondo with either hand. His naturales, particularly, were
slow, long and given with repose. It was shaping to be a solid faena, better
and more emotive than his first, which would serve him to cut the ear needed to
exit on shoulders. However, Abellán wanted more, he wanted to show his own
nerve and desire to please and thus opted to end the faena on his knees. A
series of linked chest passes on his knees, redondos on his knees and even some
manoletinas on his knees. Precisely the taurine recipe that the peñas would lap
up with as much gusto as their merienda. An estocada gave way to a strong petition
for two ears that the president rejected. From a strictly taurine perspective,
this was correct; although the faena had been exciting, it was perhaps too
cheap to merit two ears. However, playing devil’s advocate, Abellán had
succeeded in stirring the sol into a frenzy with his exciting, bright toreo and
they were moved enough to petition for the second. The two vueltas al ruedo
that he gave were probably the ideal compromise.
Perera’s first bull seemed a nervy manso,
it spent the first two tercios showing reticence to charge and only doing so in
short bursts. A couple of those bursts happened to be in the direction of a
horse for two pics during which it showed no bravura or desire to charge. This
continued through the tercio de muleta but Miguel Ángel was determined to
impose his toreo. On the basis of excellent temple, keeping the lure in the
bull’s face and standing firm, he managed a long faena teasing clean passes
from a completely reticent bull. The performance was not attractive, it could
not be before such an animal, but it has its merit.
The fifth bull of the afternoon displayed
a promising gallop during the opening tercios, which led to Perera dedicating
his faena to the crowd. However, when left on his own with the torero during
the tercio de muleta its charge became dull and listless. It was noble, but un-emotive;
a bull that seemingly poses no problem to the torero but, in fact, is the most
problematic of all. If a bull is tough, nervy and difficult, brilliant toreo
may not be possible, but a torero can still shine by facing up to it: an
overtly dangerous bull provides its own emotion to proceedings. However, with a
noble, bland bull, creating emotion is nigh on impossible. A torero may give a
technically correct performance (as Perera did today with both bulls), but his
work will ultimately bore the crowd.
Perera seemed focussed all afternoon,
which bodes well for his second corrida of the feria, Monday with the
Garcigrande’s, he will need to triumph because that windy afternoon in Valencia
this March, his only first class triumph this season, seems a long time ago. It
might have seemed a good idea at the time to skip Sevilla, but being absent at
a first class feria merely increases the pressure to triumph at the other top
class plazas – it is all well and good to give good afternoon’s in second class
plazas, indeed, it helps flesh out a season, however, the history of toreo is
written in the leading plazas. If he fails on Monday, Miguel Ángel’s next
opportunity to do so will come in Bilbao, in a month’s time, as the summer
draws to a close.
Iván Fandiño’s opener was tricky. It
wanted to charge low, and indeed pushed low at the horse during its two pics,
especially the second, but was too weak to sustain this charge. Fandiño was
never quite able to get the measure of the bull with his muleta and the faena
dissipated into nothing. If he did not dominate the bull, its charge was mid-height
and rough, when he did try to lower his hand, the bull’s charge seemed profound
but it invariably fell to the sand.
Fandiño’s second bull was the bravest of a
poor corrida, true to its nature it gave the best performance in the first
tercio – the whole corrida received light treatment from the horse, but at
least the sixth bull attempted to push. It took a while for Fandiño to get the
measure of the bull and even half way through the faena I was wondering whether
he was cashing in the credit he had earned he day before. Thankfully, after some
sparring, Iván was able to determine the correct distance and treatment,
subsequently managing three well linked series of derechazos. Good, linked
toreo that gave meaning to his performance. These came at a price, the bull was
not dull and one misstep earned Fandiño a serious looking voltereta that left
him looking groggy – as always, toreo’s concussion protocol is a squirt of
water down the back of the neck. Water administered, Fandiño returned to the
bull and concluded his work with more well linked and deep toreo. Had Iván
managed his sword correctly he would have certainly earned an ear. As it was,
Fandiño completed his feria with a dignified showing. It was not the emphatic
triumph that he needed to move close to his objective of achieving figura
status, but his solid performance keeps him firmly in the second tier – after
his underwhelming spring, and with a rising crop of emerging toreros, a poor
San Fermín might have pushed him even further down the pecking order.
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