Santander, July 25: Easily pleased

Sitting through a whole corrida where the bulk of the crowd is positive and enthusiastic and you are feeling unimpressed and flat is not a pleasant experience. And that’s how it was for me today. In a week-long feria, audiences can change from day to day; today was the feast day of San Ignacio, a public holiday; Roca Rey, el numero uno, was on the cartel; “No hay billetes” notices had been posted; and people had come to see the young figura and enjoy themselves.

First on the bill, facing bulls of Ventana del Puerto and El Puerto de San Lorenzo, was Cayetano, wearing a rather dashing traje of blue silk with black decorations. After giving some acceptable verónicas and a larga to his opening animal, for some reason he relied on a peón to take the animal to the picador. An afternoon of minimal effort by the veteran seemed in prospect, but he produced a templada faena on both the right and left hand. The bull, of course, was weak and without transmission – like virtually all in this feria – and, if there was a chance of an ear at the lidia’s end, it disappeared with a deep, poorly placed, metisaca and an estocada. It was a similar story with the fourth bull, except this time one had the feeling that, in different hands, more could have been achieved (this feeling persisted throughout the second half of today’s corrida). The faena, begun on the estribo and closed with some nice ayudados, was decent enough, but it concluded with a sword delivered from the bull’s side, an aviso and three descabellos.

I know a man who tells me that Juan Ortega is never any good. When I respond that I saw him perform excellently in Valladolid last year (see ‘Valladolid, September 9: Juan Ortega, triunfador’), he responds that Juan Ortega is never any good! He would have been pleased to have his expectations confirmed this afternoon. On today’s showing, if you want to see occasional pretty passes and torería, Juan Ortega is your man, but lidia is another matter. The highlights were a series of verónicas, a quite of cordobinas and closing half-kneeling pases ayudados to his second bull, but both his faenas were inconsistent. As was today’s president, who denied Ortega an ear from a clear majority petition after his first bull (the matador took a vuelta) and then awarded an apendice from a weaker petition following his second.

The star of the show had to wait awhile for his toreo to begin as someone had let loose one of Santander’s occasional cockerels into the ring. It eventually flew up into the tendidos, where one spectator caught it. He then tried to get someone in the callejón to take it from him, but no one was interested, so this poor man had to watch Roca Rey’s performance with a live rooster dangling from one hand throughout! God knows what happened to it in the end: the moral of this story is, if a chicken flies towards you in the bullring, duck and let someone else deal with the problem!

Anyway, Andrés greeted his anovillado opponent with verónicas and a larga, followed la vara with a quite of gaoneras and, correctly, dedicated the faena to Cayetano, who had come to his rescue here last year and suffered an injury of his own in the process (la infanta Elena was sitting in a barrera seat today, but, strangely, had not one animal dedicated to her). Roca Rey began the faena from on his knees, persisting with pases de rodillas until he was almost caught, the crowd erupting in applause as he managed to rescue himself. There followed series of derechazos and naturales, Andrés turning the bull, and lovely long chest passes, the last of which saw the bull continue on its way towards the toriles. The estocada went well and my handkerchief was waved for the only time today in a successful petition for an ear.

There was no capework to speak of with his second animal, which Andrés dedicated to the plaza as a whole. After some half-kneeling muletazos, we were into series of derechazos and naturales (this time, mainly assisted  with the ayuda) and chest passes. The latter is probably the Peruvian’s best suerte, but the audience got really excited with his circulares, including one that incorporated a cambio de mano that went completely wrong! There was another strong sword before an aviso (whistled by the crowd) and another ear was awarded, granting Roca Rey the main gate for what was, by the standards of a figura, an unexceptional afternoon.

I came away worrying about the state of the modern corrida. It’s great to have an influx of new spectators (and Roca Rey’s success has brought many youngsters to the plazas), but they need to be educated to understand what they are seeing. The heights of toreo are not circulares to a tired animal, nor a matador clinging on to a bull as he turns it, nor someone getting himself into trouble (we even had a big cheer when Juan Ortega lost his muleta to his bull in a molinete…). But that appears to be where we are heading if today is anything to go by.