Analysis of “a faenón”
A young Morante de la Puebla killing well (Morón de la Frontera, 2006)
“Morante, la diferencia”, “Un torero en estado de gracia”, “Faenón histórico en Sevilla”, “Otra faena para el recuerdo”, “Una obra catedralicia”, “Una faena histórica, de rabo” - so was eulogised Morante de la Puebla’s performance with his second bull on 23 September at the start of Sevilla’s Feria de San Miguel. But was it really that good? Let’s examine the factors that truly made it a memorable faena, while also questioning its quality.
A major element in Morante’s success was how the crowd reacted during the faena - exclaiming with excitement and emotion, rising to their feet, throwing hats into the arena. These reactions were generated by what was going on below them in the ring, but also underlying it was a tone of amazed surprise.
Because, when the Hermanos García Jiménez bull, Derribado, entered the ring and appeared to lack co-ordination, its falling and its wayward charge sending Morante running for the burladero after their initial encounters, the hopes of many in the crowd of seeing a worthwhile faena from the local hero had evaporated. The protests began immediately, but Morante, perhaps sensing the problem was caused by a dead leg that the animal had rested on in the chiquero, encouraged the crowd to calm down and sensibly let the bull run on its own some more. Nevertheless, the trumpet sound to change the tercio was met by a chorus of shouts and whistles. Indeed, by the time Derribado was cited by picador Aurelio Cruz Ríos, the crowd was protesting not only the bull, but the president and the matador. Yet Derribado ran strongly to the horse and lifted it several times whilst in the peto. A stumble coming away, however, brought more pitos. Morante continued to keep the bull at the far edge of his capote before sending it in for its second puyazo.
The crowd was finally silenced by a series of three superbly gentle chicuelinas from Morante, with a near-tossing as the bull turned back on him the third time. Morante returned to give a media verónica, his feet together, only for Derribado’s left horn to almost catch him again in the remate.
Chicuelina from Morante (Santander, 2019)
Lili, performing the brega in the second tercio, was nearly caught too, Tomás Rufo coming in to quitar. Derribado ran well in the tercio, Juan José Trujillo and Javier Sánchez Araujo justly winning applause for their banderillas. Morante, however, opted not to give a brindis at the start of the faena; how the bull would respond in the final stage of its lidia remained an unknown.
Morante began by the barrera with estatuarios and a trinchera, then produced some ayudados por bajo that brought the first olés until one of the passes was caught on the bull’s horns: Morante opted to give another tanda of ayudados, closed with a molinete that won applause. Further acclaim came with a pase de pecho and a series of three derechazos, one of these passes long and slow.
It was only now that Morante opted to take Derribado to the centre of the arena. Here, he moved the cloth to his left hand, only to be very nearly caught in his first attempt at a natural. The sevillano changed his positioning to give further naturales, Derribado coming forward humillando but only managing short charges. Morante attempted several times to bring the bull forward for a chest pass to close a series, but in the end gave up, raising his eyebrows as he walked away from the animal.
The matador returned to give a capeina followed by a tanda derechazos, only to abort the tanda in the second muletazo. Keeping the cloth in the right hand, Morante produced further passes, all of them close - some with temple, but others with the cloth caught on the bull’s horns. A clean sequence of the slow derechazos, followed by an equally gracious pase de pecho, brought a crescendo of noise, the crowd on its feet and the conductor striking up the band. Two more sublime derechazos led into a further sequence of templados passes with the right hand, ended with an equally slow natural.
Morante de la Puebla in a derechazo (Santander 2022)
The next tanda began with two molinetes as only Morante can give them, followed by four naturales, each begun standing close to the bull to accommodate its short charge. Morante crossed for a further natural, then waited calmly in front of Derribado for it to eventually take a final chest pass, the sequence bringing spectators to their feet once more.
One had the feeling by now that Morante was “drunk on the bull” and happy to continue giving muletazos, but Lili wisely came out from behind a burladero to give his matador the estoque. Morante closed with a trincherazo, two derechazos with the feet apart, then one with the feet together, circling Derribado around him, an adorno, derechazos given de frente and a chest pass. By now, the crowd was chanting “Torero!” and hats were coming down on to the sand.
Then Morante lined up Derribado and profiled with the sword. My view up until this point was that, notwithstanding the crowd’s reaction, this had been a patchy performance - admittedly, with some wonderful moments - to a short-charging bull. If I had been in la Maestranza, a good estocada at this point would have brought my handkerchief out for an ear, but no more than that. Instead, Morante ended up citing three times, on each occasion giving a small toque with the muleta to bring the bull forward then stepping to the side to deliver first a pinchazo, then a poor estocada and finally - after retreating to a burladero and hanging his head in disappointment - an estocada caída.
During and after Sevilla’s April feria, comments were made about the crowd’s generosity operating against the Maestranza’s standing as a first class plaza. Not so, this time, but, to me, to award an ear - which a majority in the crowd duly petitioned for and got - in such a plaza to a matador who has performed an irregular faena and then thrice tried to kill with poor results was a nonsense. This is not to deny that Morante de la Puebla is a great matador, but consistent performances from the sevillano are few and far between and the actual killing of bulls has never been his strong point. Leaving the crowd’s reaction to one side, this was no great performance - merely an interesting one.