*José María Manzanares - triunfador of Las Fallas*

With the initial ferias of Valdemorillo, Olivenza, Illescas, Castellón and Valencia now over, it is worth looking at some early indications as to how the 2023 temporada may pan out.

1 Anniversaries are important occasions

The year marks the 25th anniversary of El Juli’s alternativa at Nîmes and the 20th anniversary of Manzanares’ similar ceremony at Alicante., and both toreros have got off to a strong start to the temporada. El Juli left Olivenza’s pretty ring through its puerta grande after cutting an ear from each of his Garcigrande bulls, while Manzanares was at his very best in Valencia, where he cut three ears and was awarded the prize for feria triunfador. Then the two matadors fought mano a mano at Castellón, El Juli getting the best of the bulls and cutting three ears to Manzanares’ one. El Juli has promised “something special” (possibly an encerrona) at Nîmes in September and don’t be surprised if Manzanares opts to put some special ingredients into his anniversary temporada too.

2 Roca Rey continues to pull the cart

As in 2021 and ‘22, there appears to be only one matador capable of filling, or nearly filling, the plazas. Andrés Roca Rey not only continues to draw the crowds, but he also remains intent on giving them their money’s worth. His Olivenza appearance was rained off, so the Peruvian’s season began at Illescas, where he joined Manzanares in a salida a hombros, having cut four ears to the alicantino’s two. In Valencia, he saved the day by cutting two ears from a decent bull in what was, overall, a poor string of animals from Victoriano del Río. The next day, at Castellón, he was at it again, drawing a García Jiménez bull around him in circles and winning a further two ears (albeit not filling the ring). In another season of largely middle-aged figuras, Andrés brings the important dimension of youth to la Fiesta.

3 Inconsistent - but improving

After a largely disappointing 2022, there are signs that 2023 may see a reflowering of Alejandro Talavante’s toreo. The matador cut two ears from a bull of Garcigrande at Olivenza, then accomplished another two-ear faena with another garcigrande at Valencia. Two less successful afternoons came at Illescas (silence and one ear) and Castellón (silence and ovation).

4 Continuing where he left off

Tomás Rufo has started 2023 in similar fashion to his appearances last season, being triunfador de la tarde on his debut at Valencia (with jandillas) and on his return to Castellón where he fought bulls of Juan Pedro Domecq, winning three ears. All the signs are that he will continue to build on his excellent first full season as a matador de toros.

5 Making an impact

Daniel Luque is another matador who is continuing to make his mark in 2023. Now managed by ex-matador Juan Bautista, Daniel hasn’t had the best of bulls to date, but managed to cut an ear from each of his tricky Tornay opponents at Castellón and took the sole ear in a disappointing victorinada at Valencia, where he appeared mano a mano with Paco Ureña. Prior to both these appearances, he left Écija with four ears and a tail to his name on el Día de Andalucía.

6 A better start than a year ago

This time last year, things were looking desperate for Paco Ureña. Dropped by his managers at the end of the 2021 season, Paco had failed to gain contracts in Valencia and Sevilla despite previous successful afternoons in both plazas, and had only been given a place in Madrid’s San Isidro carteles after offering to torear six bulls in an afternoon. Come 2023, Sevilla continues to ignore the lorquino, but he was presented with two slots in San Isidro and in Valencia’s Las Fallas. He had bad luck with his bulls in Valencia, drawing two poor strings of Juan Pedro Domecq and Victorino Martín, but came away from the former with one ear from a Montalvo sobrero following a performance which several commentators said showed Ureña was back to his best.

7 Best of the new boys

The two Madrid triunfadores of 2022 who emerged from virtually nowhere - Ángel Téllez and Francisco de Manuel - are being favoured with contracts this year, sometimes appearing together. So far, it is the younger of the two, 22-year-old de Manuel, who is making the biggest impression, the madrileño cutting an ear in Valencia and then going out on shoulders after winning an ear from each of his García Jiménez bulls at Castellón.

8 Lack of promotion = poor attendance

How long the Téllez/de Manuel pairing lasts remains to be seen. At Valencia, where the two were joined by Paco Ureña, less than half the plaza was filled with spectators. Particularly given the relative lack of mainstream media coverage, the empresas have got to work harder to get seats sold, especially when relatively new names are on the carteles. Rafael Garrido, Valencia’s empresa, has said he was satisfied with the Las Fallas attendance figures (even though the corrida on the city’s big day of March 19 was not a sell-out): other commentators expressed worries about spectator numbers at both Valencia and Castellón. The fact that the two ferias overlapped this year (Castellón’s dates being determined by the religious calendar) probably didn’t help things either.

9 Valadez continues to show well

One outstanding performance at Olivenza was that of Leo Valadez, the young Mexican cutting an ear from his second bull of Victorino Martín. This lad deserves more contracts. At the time of writing, apart from his one afternoon in Madrid’s San Isidro feria, he has just three other corridas in his diary, all of them in France - another date with victorinos at Arles in April, a corrida of Baltasar Ibán bulls at Vic-Fezensac in May, and a June appearance at Istres with bulls of Victoriano del Río, on the latter occasion with Castella and Luque rather than modestos.

10 Rough starts for old-timers

2023 has not begun well for the two veteran matadors who announced their return to the bullrings this season. Manuel Jesús El Cid has struggled to gain contracts; he has been left out of San Isidro altogether, although his home city of Sevilla has taken him on to head the victorinada cartel in its Feria de Abril - his only announced appearance to date. Sebastián Castella, on the other hand, has had no problems securing contracts, but his season has got off to a difficult start. Although he succeeded in cutting an ear at Valencia, a bad tossing at Castellón has left him with injuries to four vertebrae which will presumably take the Frenchman some time to recover from.

11 The marginalised still have something to say

Three toreros, two of them with single contracts in Sevilla and nothing in Madrid, and the third with two San Isidro contracts in his pocket but only one other (at Zaragoza) at the time of writing, have got off to promising starts to this temporada. Antonio Ferrera cut an ear from a victorino after a solid display at Olivenza, won two ears and a tail in his next corrida at Coria, and at Castellón (back with victorinos) cut a further two ears. He appears to have cut back on some of his more outlandish toreo, but, at Castellón, perfectly executed one of his kills begun with a walk in from a distance. Cayetano performed well at Valencia, winning an ear with a strong petition for a second, and has gone out on shoulders at Écija and Morón de la Frontera. Román also performed strongly on home ground at Valencia, cutting an ear from a bull of Montalvo and only losing a Puerta Grande triumph with the sword.

12 Promising novillos: less promising toros

In terms of the bulls, the outstanding festejos at Valdemorillo, Olivenza, Castellón and Valencia have been the novilladas rather than the corridas. The novillada of Conde de Mayalde bulls at Valdemorrillo was the strongest encerrona of the series, eager and noble, and ended up yielding five ears. At Olivenza, Alejandro Talavante’s novillos (formed from Núñez del Cuvillo and Garcigrande animals) enabled a salida en hombros of all three novilleros. Fuente Ymbro provided a decent string of novillos at Castellón, the crowd petitioning for a vuelta en arrastre of one animal, while at Valencia, El Juli’s El Freixo novillada saw two exceptional bulls awarded tours of the ring. With the ferias’ corridas, whilst there have been occasional outstanding animals - montalvos at Valdemorillo and Valencia and individual garcigrandes at Valencia and Castellón - there has been no impressive complete string. Juan Pedro Domecq has yet to truly realise ‘the resurrection’ that some commentators claimed had occurred at Valencia; Victorino Martín bulls fought to date have left much to be desired; while the corrida of Victoriano del Río bulls at Las Fallas was woeful. Hopefully, toros’ quality will improve as the season develops (as often occurs).

Early season pointers to the temporada

Preventing corridas with shaved horns

A name to look out for