Jock Richardson

Thursday, 7 March: Not bad, could have been better

Today we had six bulls of Hnos García Jiménez and Olga Jiménez for El Fandi, Ginés Marín and Fernando Adrián.

I have eight friends and acquaintances in Castellón with whom I get opportunities to discuss events in the plaza. They unanimously greeted my statement that El Fandi had performed the best work I have ever seen from him with his first Matilla bull, as strong and noble a specimen as one would wish to see, with (friendly, I think) contempt. They had found him to be jaded; ageing; tedious; far below the bull; and past his sell-by date. I thought that his opening larga cambiada de rodillas, verónicas, media verónica and a recorte had all been competent and templados; his banderillas had been well-placed; and the work on his knees, that comprised most of his faena, had at least been templados, taken the bull round in linked pases and been totally free of enganches. The brief pedestrian phases had been varied, inspired and clean. His two estocadas did not take long. You may take your choice. He reverted to type in his second bull with quantity made more important than quality. His picador administered a truly fine pic after a varied greeting and a tercio of accurate placements to un toro pasado. In the early stages of the faena, he managed clean, linked series en redondo with each hand before lapsing into the old pass for the sake of passing El Fandi style. And, yes, he could have made more with another fine bull. At least he killed it quickly. One thing is certain, El Fandi is not done yet. Adrián might just have got an ear; El Fandi got the chicken!

Ginés Marín has recently struck me as a well-endowed torero who has not yet found a way to unerringly use his virtues to create cohesive and convincing toreo. His efforts are serious, his best work warms the heart, but there is always, for me, “un pero”. He was scrappy and investigative with his first, another Matilla bull with vigour and nobility. The cuadrilla helped keep things settled with their wise lidia and, by halfway through the faena, things were improving; single pase and readjust movements were replaced with series of right and left-handed pases that were clean, compact and artistically performed. This excellent phase ended with some flourishing pases por alto, doblones to align the bull and an estocada off a slight curve. His salute was well deserved. The sixth bull was the least impressive of a praiseworthy lot: weak but willing. It was impressive in the early stages and Marín took advantage of its early strength in a smooth, erect, serious statement written in delantales. The preface to the faena worked well also. Recovered from a fall, the bull engaged in a series of derechazos segued into naturales with a silken cambio de mano. Such perfection could not be continued with the weakening bull. It was tragic that Marín had to cede paces between pases as the faena developed, but it was not his fault. Each pass was beautifully constructed. Towards the end, the pases became frantic, the lad desperate to please an audience which was growing cold physically and in their responses. They stirred when Marín gifted them some close and spectacular bernadinas. It was enough to win him an ear, perhaps as compensation for being so parsimonious with their reward for his work with the third bull.

A gentleman behind me has been lecturing the tendido about the virtues of Fernando Adrián every day he has been here – he missed the sin pics. I rather think from the photographic record his wife offered that Fernando had been a guest at their taurine club lunch. I doubted the depth of their afición till they showed me pictures of them in the patio de caballos in Azpeitia last year. Aficionados who go to Azpeitia are genuine aficionados, I thought, until we realised that the picture of Juan Leal they proudly showed was of Daniel Luque. Ho, Hum! As he stabbed me in the back with his fists and held his upraised thumbs up in expectation of praise for Adrián’s first faena, I responded, “I cannot praise a faena in which the torero has allowed his bull to be vastly over picced, starts the faena on his knees to an unproved animal and gets tossed and rolled along the sand before embarking on a faena using the pico and keeping a bull he does not understand miles away from him in a state of confusion and insecurity!” I did not mention Adrián’s successful estocada from a curved entry. I think I lost another friend. That Adrián was given an ear did not alter my view.

He was much more convincing with his second bull, another strong and noble specimen with which he did come to terms. His welcoming verónicas were clean, elegant, and beautifully composed. The bull took a well-measured pic from Alberto Sandoval with a will and went nobly to the banderillas. Adrián might have allowed his banderilleros a salute. A friend compared his attitude to toreo to mine in the portal of the plaza one evening: “You are interested in technique and structure, my appreciation is wider, more of toreo in the round.” Hay para todos, but he is right about my conviction that all art is fundamentally based on technique. And the second faena of Adrián satisfied that conviction precisely. Following a greeting of long, templadas verónicas and a quite of smooth well-adjusted delantales, he created a classical faena without frills. He built series of linked passes only sporadically marred by his over-obvious pico de muleta. Towards the end, he was citing en el frente and carrying the bull round in long, linked series of templados right and left-handed pases. The commitment of both man and bull was palpable. And then, without a trace of determination, he placed a lazy pinchazo.

Friday, 8 March: Manzanares - age, fatigue, or laziness? Roca Rey - magically still fooling some of the people some of the time? Tomás Rufo - a man reaching for unimaginable limits?

Manzanares, when he performed as he did this afternoon, makes me wonder which of the above is affecting him, He is very popular here in Castellón and he is the only matador with two contracts. Perhaps the fact that he was facing a couple of unimpressive Juan Pedros contributed to his afflictions. Like a man who seemed not to be where he found himself, he strolled through a first faena to an unaggressive stumbling apology for a bull. He has skill and experience, without doubt, but with this animal he used them to create a distant, sleep-inducing faena against the boards under the president. He tried his recibiendo kill, but failed in the same place as he did last year. A pinchazo a volapié worked. The fourth bull was as little help to him as had been the first. It managed to survive a long-hard pic but was skidding out of the verónicas of Ginés Marín’s quite. The faena started with some lazy linear derechazos and it was soon clear that the bull had nothing to give. Manzanares squeezed a few single pases from it and, eschewing the recibiendo, placed a brilliant estocada.

I cannot fathom why Roca Rey is so popular. My first sightings of him were when he was a young novillero sin picadores in Algemesí and I have watched him harvesting ears for years. The infrequent pase, series of pases or kill have pleased and I still think that there may be a genuine torero in there somewhere. I wish he would let it out sometimes. My opinion does not matter when the rest of the world adores him. Today, chinks in his armour were appearing. My notes end, “The bull was like the first, lacking in casta or character. There was appealing cape work and a beautifully linked series in the faena. Mostly, it was a succession of single pases enganchados. The tight circulares were loved by the crowd, but it was work by a torero without ideas other than getting his suit covered with blood for the reward of una oreja barata.

His opening to the fifth was spectacular. The bull ran out of the initial verónicas but a group of low verónicas, gaoneras and a low sweeping larga were impressive. The bull was no Charles Atlas, but it did work hard at the horse, the first bull of the feria to take two pics. The faena started in Roca Rey style with pases de espaldas and front-facing derechazos. They were typical Roca stuff and neatly done – they scarcely caused a murmur from the crowd. A series of derechazos was technically perfect, but, like the rest of the work, totally lacking in heart. The man became desperate, and a desperate Roca Rey resorted to the peg and readjust orthodox pase; interminable rests for the bull; catchings and rollings on the sand; the leg-towelling muleta movement; and the final estocada baja with another cogida, more blood and more rolling on the sand. I know people who like that sort of thing, and, as Miss Brodie recognised, for those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like. They are welcome to it. A not obvious majority of castellonese, including the president, liked it. They gave him another cheap ear and the main gate.

Today, Tomás Rufo was magnificent. He welcomed his first with seven delantales so slow, so flat, so encouraging, that the bull had to keep coming back for more. It was the most honestly aggressive animal so far and Rufo knew how to use it. His intention to torear was even more obvious in his quite of chicuelinas and a revolera. The derechazos de rodillas jarred with me, but they were long, circular, linked and templados. In the first half of the faena, he really showed his worth in long and linked series of derechazos and naturales, his positioning, temple, and lengthening of the pases - occasionally too prolonged into a remate enganchado - overflowed with torería and commitment. Rufo has made himself a hero here over the past two years, having totally enraptured his audiences. And these audiences like quantity as much as they like quality. Rufo is perfectly aware of that, and, in what I believe was a downward spiral, indulged in one of those tight Ojeda/Ubrique/Perera/Mexican arrimones that stretch for hours, incarnadine the trousers, and suffocate every ounce of energy left in the bull. All of that and a quickly effective low estocada, accompanied by a copious outpouring of blood from the bull’s mouth and nostrils, ensured the award of two ears.

Rufo welcomed the sixth with a larga cambiada de rodillas, edging slightly out of danger as the bull passed. His march to los medios with smoothly majestic verónicas was much more convincing. It was great to see a couple of expert banderilleros place three immaculate pairs. The demonstration of classical, compact, confident toreo that followed proved that Tomás Rufo not only can torear, but wants to. He had an excellent bull with nobility and strength, and in five linked and complete classical series of derechazos and naturales, with never a blemish, he gave us the greatest toreo of the feria so far. His eyes always on the bull, the combined movement of body, lure and bull ever slow, graceful, and elegant, he was as engrossed as the bull was in the toreo. There were a few close pases to align, an estocada and a third ear.

Saturday, 9 March: La corrida del arte taurino del siglo xxi

To have a corrida de arte these days, it is necessary to have three artists, the better if they are three from Seville. It would be hard to imagine a better trio than Morante de la Puebla, Juan Ortega and Pablo Aguado. And the kind of bulls the artists like are Domingo Hernández specimens. and if they don’t pass the reconocimiento, substitutes with Núñez de Cuvillo blood will fill the bill. That’s a ridiculous statement of course. These ganaderías give no guarantee of success and these toreros are not bound to produce art. It looked awfully promising on paper, though. Of the six bulls that came for today, two Domingo Hernández did not pass the test and Álvaro Núñez produced the substitutes.

The loudest cheers of the afternoon were for the busloads of Catalanes who had come to support the Fiesta. Chaos reigned when Morante’s first bull entered. It careered around the ring at speed again and again, Morante’s cuadrilla failing to stop it and he not yet visible. When he did emerge, it was to deliver verónicas enganchadas. At least the bull pushed against its only pic before the chaotic suerte de banderillas. The faena comprised a few mid-height pases with enganches, some ayudados and death by pinchazo: pure Morante de la Puebla. The fourth bull was lame, but it was keener to charge than had been the first. There were several verónicas on the borderline between cynical and lazy, with the merest sparkles of his magic wrists. Four times he tried to place the bull en sitio before the horse; four times it ran away to los medios. Aguado did the job in the end. The pic was brutal; the faena, a poor thing, was built on a series of pass-and-readjust derechazos and naturales; Morante trying his best to create something worthwhile. He never persists at puddling about in the dry well for long, and was soon back to his careful alignment process before proving his time had been wasted by killing with a pinchazo, and estocada and two descabellos. His bronca and eventual exit under a hail of cushions was assured. It is not long now to Easter in Seville.

Juan Ortega has yet to prove his artistry to me. He is so hated by the Adrián devotee behind us that his seats were occupied by others today. Toreros de arte are unreliable, and Juan Ortega must be near to being the most unreliable of all. That we aficionados should not build clever sandcastles like that was proven by his greeting to the first – a welcome de época: a huge series of verónicas, the knee down, the hands low, the movement silken and synchronised with the bull; the animal enraptured and the crowd on its feet. This was art of a kind rarely seen. The walking chicuelinas with which he led the bull to the horse were almost as perfect. Aguado got to make a quite: graceful delantales and a light media verónica to close. The magic bubble remained fully inflated in a series of opening pases por alto by Ortega – left and right-handed linked with a perfect cambio de mano. The collapse of the bubble was gradual, perceptible, and saddening. The bull had lost its original energy and the faena declined into single pases enganchados. What had started so well ended with two pinchazos and a low estocada.

The fifth bull, an Álvaro Núñez, was anovillado with a poor head. It was allowed to career around the ring in the early stages. Despite its cowardly weakness, it accepted two pics and six farpas before Ortega started the faena with ayudados seated on the estribo that flowed into each other like honey. It would have impressed me more if each pase had not been initiated by the flapping cape of Ortega’s peones; it only takes two to tango. Better was a series of pases on foot: a trinchera, a pase en redondo, a molinete and a natural, an artistic insertion that both elevated and surprised. The bull was by now exhausted and Ortega desperate to please. So, we sat through an apparently interminable session of pase pegging that interested nobody before a pinchazo and an estocada. We were left to imagine what this elegant, artistic, and technically well-developed torero might have done with a genuine bull.

Pablo Aguado drew two Garcigrandes. His first was allowed to run wildly around, stumbling the while, as Aguado tried to fix it. It took a while, but when he achieved it, the series of verónicas glowed with serenity and style. The bull was hesitant, but Aguado found more lances as he walked it in to the horse. The pic was light and Aguado was approaching the summit of taurine art in a quite of four classy verónicas. He can’t half burst the balloon of taurine excitement. He lost the bull’s attention and had to exit, Antigonus like, pursued by a bull. His faena was a mixed-up affair. Opening doblones were impressive and one or two derechazos at least showed Aguado’s justly famous temple. As joined-up taurine art, there was just not enough of it. He ended with a couple of pinchazos. The sixth bull was the most impressive looking of the afternoon, which says very little. The faena established that it neither could nor wanted to charge. Aguado should have noticed the fact. He must be desperate for some success because he spent an age extracting short pases interspersed with readjusting trots that were a denial of toreo as art, technique, or spectacle. The kind people of Castellón rewarded the two younger matadors with salutes, ovations, and applause. Morante’s departure in ugly shouting was not entirely his fault.

Sunday, 10 March: A happy ending – kind of

At one point during the lidia of one of the super-noble bulls sent by the Fraile family, a man in front of us lost patience and shouted, “Why don’t these figuras torear bulls like Palhas or Celestino Cuadris?” I pointed out that ganaderos have been experimenting for 300 years to breed animals like these Fraile’s, for at least 200 of them to please the tastes of the figuras of the time, and that we could hardly expect them to turn the clock back. I hope he was not annoyed; he had just presented us with two kilos of oranges picked by his own hand from his own trees that very morning. We will be back next year and find out. The figuras will still not be toreando the bulls he wishes for.

Sébastien Castella convinced me several times last year that he had developed a new kind of toreo that was more still, organised, templado, slower and more beautiful than the one he indulged in before he took his sabbatical. There was very little of that today. His first was a Puerto de San Lorenzo Atanasio/Lisardo Sánchez from Lorenzo Fraile. It looked the part with its impressive bulk, its black skin, and its white horns. As we have seen so often this feria, the bull was allowed to run around the ring several times. Eventually, the Frenchman caught it with three verónicas enganchadas. Restored from the ugly confusion of his capote having been caught on the bull’s horns., Castella tried again. He was tossed without consequences. The bull wobbled its way out of the moderate pic and was soon balancing Castella’s will to please against its reluctance to co-operate. It was a recipe for a tasteless dish. Castella was back in Pre-Covid mode: insecure, laterally distant, rapid, disorganised, and overflowing with the desire to please. His long faena was largely unnecessary. He should have noticed the bull’s condition and killed quickly. In the end, there was a pinchazo and three descabellos.

Castella’s second Puerto de San Lorenzo was a fine specimen in appearance as had been his first. As he welcomed it with ever closer delantales, he advanced from the mundane to the magical. Having passed through the first two acts, it had proven its nobility and readiness to charge with the head down. Castella set out to use its virtues in the faena – in his way. The first third was executed as I had hoped he would torear when I read his name on the cartel and the second two thirds in his desperate to cut ears fashion. He performed toreo of very high quality in the early stages of the faena, with linked and flowing pases with each hand. Perhaps his rests for the bull with their attendant marches were a little overdone, but the toreo was beautiful to watch. We will never know whether he would have cut the ears he obviously so desired by making the faena short. He changed style and opted for the long arrimón close to the docile and co-operative Fraile bull. So caught up in circulares, his desplantes between the horns, his manoletinas against the boards, and his suffocation of the bull, the second aviso had sounded before he aligned the bull. He killed the bull with a pinchazo hondo and was given a friendly ear.

Manzanares drew a Ventana del Puerto, José Juan Fraile, domecq in second place. He started with a series of verónicas templadas plucked from the canon and delivered with grace and panache. The bull took its nicely placed single pic at the horse’s chest and created a heart-warming picture. The three wonderful pairs of sticks won applause for the peones. As the faena started, it seemed that we were in the presence of a younger, less lazy, less casual, Manzanares. He started off with a complete series of derechazos, citing de frente en el frente and carrying the final remate to a conclusion in one of those huge chest pases we used to see from him so often. Soon, he was back to distant pases cited with the pico in what was an apparent search for security. The bull soon grew weak and two dull protagonists stumbled their way through to a metisaca and a crosswise sword thrust.

The fifth, from Puerto de San Lorenzo was a beautifully presented atanasio. It was eager in the series of verónicas templadas with which an apparently rejuvenated José Marí welcomed it. Erect, elegant, and smooth, the torero judged the bull precisely. It worked at the horse in a nicely administered pic and went into three pairs of sticks with a will. The faena was well composed and neatly structured with right and left series of precision, grace, and beauty. Maybe the fact that he was now the only one of the trio without an ear cut stimulated him. Whatever it was that had pulled him out of his lethargy, it was welcome. Brief and beautiful, the faena came to its end at exactly the right time. Manzanares is a great killer when the circumstances are right. Eschewing the so often unsuccessful recibiendo – the bull was hardly fit for it by now – he launched himself over the horns for a perfect result. As Robbie Burns wrote on the windowpane, “Ask why God made the gem so small and why so hue the granite; because God meant mankind to set, the higher value on it”. Manzanares cut his ear at last and deservedly.

Alejandro Talavante often makes me feel I am a toddler being lured into obedience with coloured sweeties. Are those flamboyant, baroque, flourishes of his, done with such ease and panache and so attractive and easy to digest, good for me? Are they real taurine art, or are they mere prestidigitation? At least he makes me think, which beats sleeping through plastic faenas. He welcomed his first, from La Ventana del Puerto, with an afarolado, some chicuelinas and a larga looking heavenwards. What a way to attract attention! The bull took a light pic nobly and we had another display of brilliant cape work in a quite of florid Mexican lances. This noble bull - maybe docile would be a better word - charged for three brilliantly placed pairs of banderillas and cooperated with Talavante in a cornucopia of varied pases, started with three estatuarios: all smooth, all inventive, all linked when appropriate, all on a palm leaf of terrain, and all without a blemish. Towards the end, it was all Jack Horner stuff with Talavante pulling manoletinas, trincheras, pases of disdain and a huge estocada tendida hasta la bola out of his delicious pie. What a tragedy it is that “Golden lads and girls all must, /As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.” In this case, stardust turned to soot and was scattered over Talavante and his faena by his puntillero, who took six attempts to finally kill the bull. There was no denying Talavante one ear. The extremeño’s bad luck was not over.

The sixth bull hit a burladero as it charged towards a peón and had to be killed as it lay. The replacement was a fine Puerto de San Lorenzo with presence and trapío. Talavante brought it under control with some flat verónicas and it took a firm pic well. Javier Ambel placed two precise pairs of banderillas and there were a few complete naturales before the bull emerged from a pase and turned a somersault on to its back. Clearly damaged, it stumbled through Talavante’s attempts to bring it round, but he had no option but to dispatch it, which he did promptly.

And so ended La Magdalena of 2024. These reports have merely been one aficionado’s snapshot of one of the season’s early ferias. They can hardly be a forecast for the temporada to come. It seems that they tell us some things. The corridas were well attended and the reception of the novilladas without picadors was quite amazing with the plaza more than half full each day. There were surprisingly many younger – and by that, I mean between the ages of 15 and 40 – people in the plaza. Most of the established toreros demonstrated that, when given bulls with strength and aggression, they can produce convincing toreo. Too many of them, and I think of Manzanares, Castella, and Morante – seem content to live off the goodwill they have built up in the past and could push themselves a bit harder - getting closer to the bulls would be a good start. The ganaderos could do better. Pablo Hermosa de Mendoza, El Juli and Enrique Ponce can retire and sleep easily in their respective jubilations: Diego Ventura is already at the summit of rejoneo and there are plenty of youngsters capable of filling the places of the departing maestros. Personally, I can hardly wait for Madrid.

La Magdalena 2024 (Part II): Una Plata Fuerte Un Poco Flojo

Jock Richardson

Mr Consistent

La Magdalena 2024 (Part I): An aperitivo of four mixed dishes