Las Corridas Generales de Bilbao 2024 (I)

Jock Richardson

Saturday 17 August - Day Out in Donostia

The wiser among you might ask what would drive a couple of old fogies from Bilbao to San Sebastián to watch two so-called taurine artists and the so-called king of the taurine firmament fight (the wrong word but the phrase has a poetic touch) the kind of bulls Morante loves. And it is a wise question. Our only excuse is that we still believe that Núñez de Cuvillos can give good play (we saw El Juli cut a tail off a peach-coloured one in Zaragoza in the mists of time) and still hope that Talavante might eschew his toreo de salón for some toreo puro; Roca Rey might manage to do more than a couple of spectacular naturales and have learned to kill properly; and that Pablo Aguado might produce more than flashes of sublime temple.

The programme claimed that the cuvillos weighed from 585 to 680 kilos and averaged 617 kilos. That had my compañera screaming the official definition of the toro bravo. When the notice board emerged with weights of 50 kilos lower in each case, she merely shouted that they were over-weight. Who knows? They looked like normal toros de figuras to me.

Talavante’s welcoming verónicas to his first were sweeping and stately and, had he not lost his cape; they would have been impressive. He redeemed himself in a quite of generous verónicas and a revolera after the bull had suffered a fierce pic from his picador. Roca Rey mirrored it with a copy just as generous and impressive. At least Talavante has a good cuadrilla: Álvaro Montes and Manuel Izquierdo, amply aided by Javier Ambel, produced a brilliant suerte de banderillas. The bull was noble but weak and, in the early stages of the faena, Talavante was able to produce distant linear series that were clean, templados and, to my mind, just a little advantage-taking on the part of the torero. As the faena progressed, Talavante did get nearer the bull, but soon had to resort to pases pegged one by one with his smooth and elegant serenity. By the end, the bull was sufficiently convinced (or exhausted) for Talavante to pour out his version of the series de luquesinas: soft as syrup and clean as a whistle. This is great stuff but leaves one wondering if Talavante is playing with the audience just as he is playing with the bull. At least one ear safely stuffed into his esportón, he threw it out again with an ugly bajonazo and four descabellos.

By the time the fourth bull arrived, Aguado had cut an ear. By the time ‘Tortolito’ emerged, having shrunk from 585 to 545 kilos between printing of programme and opening of toril, we had had our money’s worth: two hours to kill three bulls. The welcome of two largas and a huge verónica was more meritorious for its spectacle than its accuracy, and the two light pics proved that the bull was weak of the feet, distracted of the concentration and muy, muy, parado when it came to entering the charge. The rewarded suerte of Ambel and Izquierdo perked it up a bit and, when Talavante got to his knees for derechazos, pases de espaldas and pases cambiados, it was a willing infant again. It is said, “Se torea como se es”. Talavante is owner of a well-stocked cabinet of curiosities which, in the right circumstances (something, I think, to do with a compliant bull), he lays open to the public. Today, he was in his element. And soon, so was the audience: statuesque derechazos; perfectly constructed naturales; right and left series of pases sewn together with scarcely a movement of the feet; luquesinas to outshine the best of Daniel Luque; the whole spiced with flourishing pases de espaldas, trincherillas and molinetes. My notes say, near the end, “Why am I not convinced?”  There are many dead periods; a good deal of posturing and that kind of con-man convincing that says, “I am taking you for a ride”. It is all very entertaining and there is a good deal of fine toreo mixed up in it. His kill was achieved with a media, an estocada desprendida and a descabello and he was given an ear.

‘Violeta’, once shrunk down to 550 kilos, was just about the right weight and it entered Roca Rey’s beautifully constructed and templados delantales and a revolera with gusto. This was a toro bravo and it knocked the horse over with ease. And then it persisted against the pic. Then it worked well, gradually drifting parallel to the peto, in a heroic struggle. It willingly charged Algaba and Punta in a suerte rewarded with saludos. What more could a body ask for? Roca Rey would have liked something a little less complicated. He used half of the ring to draw some derechazos from the lunging and hooking animal ‘Violeta’ had become. He did notice that it was amenable on the right horn, and he used it well in a complete and templado series of derechazos. Finding the correct cite position, he did the same again. With the left hand, he also pulled the bull into close clean naturales. How sound this man can be when he is forced to torear according to los cánones.  And how shoddy he becomes when he resorts, as he did at the end of this faena, to the single distant pase and the showy arrimón. Worst of all are his failures to kill well. In curved approach after curved approach, he placed two pinchazos and an estocada. He lost at least one ear.

Roca Rey lost his cape in the welcoming phase to his second bull and then delivered six veronicas, ceding paces before a plethora of retreating flaps with enganches. There was no attempt to place the bull en suerte before the horse, but, after its moderate pic, it did charge honestly in a stellar Viruta and Algaba suerte. By now, the bull had almost had enough. Roca Rey carefully coaxed some derechazos from un toro muy parado in two meritorious tandas and it looked as if we might see some clever toreo. But no! The matador also had had enough, and he went for the real sword. He ended his disappointing afternoon with a pinchazo on top and a couple of descabellos. His doblete in Bilbao will be interesting.

Pablo Aguado has not yet convinced me. It is true that his temple is phenomenal, and I have seen what are called pinceladas from him in incomplete faenas. I live in hope. Today, he drew a melocotón toro in third place. His welcome of verónicas templadas indicated that it had weak legs and a distracted nature. Its behaviour with the horse suggested something different. It entered for its first vara in a ferocious attack that toppled horse and rider, and then, order restored, went in for a fierce pic with huge commitment. We were not to get a rounded coda; it left a glancing blow readily. After another spectacular suerte de banderillas, we were into a faena of two halves In the first half, Aguado treated us to series after series of closely linked derechazos, rising upwards in intensity each time in a crescendo of beautiful toreo puro. When he went to the left-hand, things became more staccato: he did not take the bull all the way round and the pases came one by one. Wisely, he returned to the right and ended with a flourish of complete and templados derechazos, ayudados por alto and a molinete, all of which looked great. His estocada tendida and desprendida came as the aviso sounded, but felled the bull without puntilla. The ear was a little generous but perfectly understandable.

Pablo Aguado

The sixth bull stumbled its crippled way through the first nondescript suerte only to surprise by allowing another beautiful suerte de banderillas. Aguado must have sensed the bull’s positive qualities as he dedicated to the public, and it was not long before the Banda de Música de la Ciudad de Irún was providing a stirring background to a revealing faena. Based on series after complete series of orthodox pases – this bull was honest on both sides – delivered with clock-stopping temple and perfect construction, it was peppered with desplantes: molinetes, trincherillas like silk, pases por bajo as light as feathers, almost imperceptible cambios de mano, and a nice genuflective desplante before the horns to end. The estocada desprendida killed quickly and Aguado left on shoulders.

Talavante doing his thing and Aguado proving his potential all in one afternoon sure makes a two-hour bus ride worthwhile.

Sunday 18 August - Una Gran Tomadura de Pelo

Far be it from me, a man who has watched the Choperas gradually leave their management responsibilities in the south west of  France; watched la Semana Grande de San Sebastián shrink from a full week of corridas to a mere weekend; seen the brands on the walls of Vista Alegre so increasingly covered with lichen each year that one needs to apply memory to appreciate them; and been present at the deterioration of las Corridas Generales de Bilbao from one of the most important ferias in the calendar to a poorly attended vestige of its former glory, to accuse them and their various supports of being bad for the fiesta. I can leave that to the aficionados bilbainos in the queue to get their money back after the cancellation of the corrida de rejones of 18 August. Not one of them was praising the Choperas for cancelling a corrida on an afternoon in which the rain had stopped hours ago, the roads and pavements had dried out and the weather had been changing for the better for hours. There was no doubt that they thought themselves to be victims of a huge trick. They thought the rain had allowed the Choperas to cancel a corrida for which they had not sold enough tickets to break even. The official line was delivered in today’s papers. The nature of the surface of the arena in Bilbao is such that the rain turns it into mud that makes it dangerous for the horses and the cavalrymen had asked for the suspension. How a plaza de primera can be left without a decent drainage system and sufficiently protective tarpaulins must have an explanation. The fiesta de toros in Bilbao is not dying, it is being killed.

Monday 19 August – Maturation, Ambition and Frustration

In the halcyon days of the past, the parade from the centre of Bilbao to the plaza de toros was described in articles and books as a legendary event during las Corridas Generales. Whether it was an attempt to revive the tradition or not was not clear, but the three novilleros of this afternoon led a substantial parade of banderilleros and the public from the Hotel Ercilla towards Vista Alegre. It was a nice touch.

The three novilleros were all around 19 years old and each had been climbing his way up through small town competitions towards contracts in plazas such as Bilbao. Jarocho had a triumph in San Isidro earlier this year and is within days of his alternativa. Judging from his work to his first, he is mature and ready for it. A substitute for a cripple that had to be removed (all of today’s animals were supplied by José Cruz), the bull was a noble charging machine that allowed Jarocho to demonstrate the range of his abilities. When it came to the faena, he tended to torear at a large lateral distance with the right hand, but he gradually drew the novillo in nearer, and when he started to work with the left hand, his naturales were anthological. The entire copious faena was created in the middle of the arena, which added to its compactness and beauty. His estocada was tendida, low and crosswise but the majority did not care and Matías did his duty and awarded an ear. His second bull gave him few options. It kept its head at mid height throughout and did not respond to Jarocho’s encouragement. When it came to the kill, his sword emerged from the bull’s side. Jarocho had done his best with unhelpful material and killed badly. We will soon see whether he is ready for the alternativa. 

Aarón Palacio (image from tajunatoros.com)

As Aarón Palacio, a youngster from Zaragoza, un maño, started with his first novillo, the word “desperation” was the first that came to my mind. Here was a guy who had been given a big opportunity in Bilbao and he was going to take advantage of it at any price. He soon changed my assessment as he gradually proved that he was driven by ambition rather than desperation and that he had plenty of fine taurine qualities with which to turn that ambition into success. Seldom have I seen a neophyte with such an abundant mixture of skill and commitment. He took an impressive tossing when he attempted a quite to Jarocho’s first novillo and his bandaged ankle and obvious limp might have been a handicap. But no! He welcomed his first novillo with a larga a portagayola and rushed into a series of verónicas templadas. His faena, perhaps a little speedy for perfection, comprised classical pases with each hand that were complete and smoothly linked. The novillo tired as the faena progressed and, having gone on for too long, Aarón killed with a low vertical media estocada and four descabellos. That did nothing to damp his enthusiasm, and he was off to the toriles on his next bull for another larga a portagayola. It was highly successful. But the flurry of faroles de rodillas with which he continued were epic. It is a much rarer lance than the larga de rodillas and Palacio executed his series with accuracy and aplomb. The novillo tended to hook, which marred the positively delivered orthodox pases slightly, but Palacio knew how to gild the lily: his manoletinas were close and won the bilbainos into the award of an ear. It might have been two if the media estocada had not departed from the rigid criteria of President Matías González

Javier Zulueta is the son of an alguacilillo of the Seville Maestranza and I read in a paper the other day that he dreams of being the next Morante. He is tall and has a toreo that is far more mathematical, precise, and calculated than any that ever came out of the Sevillian school. As I have seen him in various televised novilladas, it is a toreo I would classify as Castilian, and which convinces. Unfortunately, his material today would not have suited any style. His potential shone through, but dimly, as he tried to extract pases sueltos from his first noble manso, which he killed with a metisaca and an estocada. He was no better served by his second novillo, an animal that strayed far from being fit for toreo with its lack of strength, nobility or character. Zulueta, did try to give it some life in his vertical and calculated way, but he was doomed to failure. He ended his frustrating afternoon with an estocada atravesada and five descabellos. He had bad luck today, but we will hear more of him.

Tuesday 20 August – A Mano a Mano That Never Was

Any idea that today’s corrida was to be a mano a mano in the sense of a competition fell away like the discarded cigarette papers at the sorteo. Daniel Luque was given the black garbanzos of the lote, and Borja Jiménez was given the white ones. The results of the corrida were settled by twelve thirty of the clock.

‘Soplón’ was certainly un toro de Bilbao in appearance, but the weakness in its legs was obvious before Luque’s beautifully executed delantales had been completed; and it fell in a verónica on its way to the horse. Well placed en suerte, it took two light pics and complied in some neat delantales by Jiménez. The bull was weak, the cries of the sparse crowd for its withdrawal were ignored, and the banderilleros sweated to get a couple of pairs placed. The faena unfolded in a very small area of the ring and had the outstanding merit that Luque delivered his pases at media altura which kept the bull from falling. Things went very well at first. Beautifully linked series with the left hand were ended with long templados chest pases and, given the weakness of the bull, Luque was stroking perfection. On he went, this time being able to draw the bull’s head down and deliver exquisite naturales of heart-stopping temple. The five luquesinas were de riguer and none the worse for that: they were slow and templados and the cambios de mano silken. Had Luque killed well, he would have won an ear. As it was, he finished the bull with a metisaca and an estocada drifting off the direct line, something that will still not do in Bilbao.

It was all uphill for Luque after his meritorious faena to the first bull. Today’s third bull, ‘Agualimpia’, got the applause it deserved for its trapío and its wonderful armament. It accepted a couple of nondescript pics and, after a beautifully close series of chicuelinas from Jiménez, put Luque’s banderilleros through purgatory in the suerte de banderillas. When Iván García and Jesús Arruga have difficulty placing the sticks, we may be sure that there is serious cause. It was clear that this bull was not apt for any kind of lidia, let alone that of Luque. He pegged a few naturales and killed drifting off the line of charge with a low estocada. Luque welcomed the fifth with insecure pace-ceding lances and took it to the horse for two pics, from each of which it fell on exit. Again, unpredictable behaviour resulted in a chaotic suerte de banderillas. Luque was doomed. Before accepting the fact, he tried very hard to produce a faena. Mostly it comprised single linear and despegados pases to a defensive manso. Many of them looked pleasing in themselves, but they did not subject the bull to real toreo. Once again, his kill was defective: a pinchazo and an estocada off a curve. I read an opinion somewhere that Luque has never been the same since his goring last year. One just must take a glance at the escalafón and read the daily press reports on happenings in the taurine world to find that he is doing relatively well this season. Reading his own evaluations of today’s bulls indicates that it was not the aftermath of his goring that led to his lack of success today, but the poor condition of his bulls.

‘Regatero’ was a chestnut bull of 615 kilos and had great trapío and formidable armament. Borja Jiménez marched to la portagayola to welcome it with a larga that did not quite come off. He had to jump to one side. When he attempted verónicas, they were enganchadas. But that was just the beginning. By the time he took up the muleta, he was confident enough of the bull to dedicate to the public. They were soon brought to their feet. The doubling pases of the opening were clean and controlling and the trinchera with which the series ended slowly majestic. Clearly, the bull had a dream right horn. The first half of the faena took full advantage of it, and series after series of linked and flowing pases built upwards to a phase in which Jiménez was in full control of situation and bull with silken temple, mathematical precision of positioning and movement and an outpouring of personal style and commitment that stopped time. It must have been exhausting for both man and bull, and things atrophied – but only slightly – when he had to resort to the pegging of left-handed pases one by one. Somehow, Borja and bull got together again towards the end and the closing naturales were linked and enduring. His estocada contraria was delivered like a cruise missile and the bull dropped dead immediately. There was no doubt that the ear was won, but Matías took ages to put the pañuelo over. No doubt the positioning of the sword did not meet his two-finger rule or some other of his rigid but unadvertised criteria. He ignored the crowd’s petition for the second ear. We had seen a bull of tremendous appearance and toreability with pure Juan Pedro Domecq ancestry meet a man with qualities that could make him a torero de época.  

Borja Jiménez (image from Plaza1)

And Jiménez had by no means finished his proof of the fact. He strode out to la portagayola to welcome the fourth bull and, this time, the suerte was completed immaculately: the verónicas that followed were clean and generous. The toro was placed accurately before the horse and complied under a couple of light pics. Then we had the only aspect of the afternoon that gave a nod to a mano a mano: a quite of gaoneras from Luque and a reply in chicuelinas from Jiménez. In each case, they were artistically performed and were a credit to the protagonists. Things had been going quite well. That would never do to be continued in a corrida de toros – we are not here to enjoy ourselves. The downhill kick came from bull and banderillas. They could not place the sticks because the bull would not allow them to, and chaos reigned for five minutes. The genuflecting derechazos with which Borja started his faena were exquisite and the standing derechazos that followed surpassed them. This was a complicated bull that needed dominating; it could not have met a man better equipped to bring it to heel. The naturales of the opening were rough, but by the second series, the bull was following in smoothly executed complete pases. A pase de espaldas, so close the matador was nearly bumped away, heralded an epic series of derechazos steeped in toreo and gilded with beauty. The low derechazos that led to the end had the bull humbled and served as an appropriate ending flourish. This had not been a bull on rails and Borja Jiménez had risen to the challenge of its complexities with heart and soul. He needed a pinchazo and an estocada tendida to kill. Maybe that is the reason he was denied the second ear. We need this sort of toreo.

As if to prove that he really was brave enough to kneel before the gates of fear and perform a larga cambiada de rodillas to an untested bull, he was off again to greet his third bull. The lance was clean, accurate and emotional. The verónicas that followed were beautifully constructed, generously delivered and rounded off with a close media verónica. Alberto Sandoval picced the bull mercilessly in the first encounter, but that did not prevent it from lifting the horse while it took the second light pic. Luque stepped in with a couple of nice verónicas and Juan Sierra and Gómez Pascual used the bull’s vivacity to place another complete set of banderillas. Jiménez had drawn another dream Fuente Ymbro with which to further establish that he is a torero of great knowledge and skill with copious dashes of a kind of rustic art - he came up the hard way working as a pig inspector and going for eight years of near taurine unemployment between alternativa and consecration. He opened the faena with a pase de espaldas, an imperceptible turn and a close series of derechazos templados. The bull asked for a classical faena of closely linked orthodox passes done in a small area, and that is exactly what it got. The words “complete” “linked” and “good” appear frequently in my notes. Jiménez had done very well. He eventually killed with a pinchazo and an estocada from a diagonal approach that killed the bull promptly.

It is difficult for an aficionado of my vintage not to think of Espartaco and Borja Jiménez in the same thought. They are from the same place, there is a taurine influence of the Espartaco family on him, and for me to watch his toreo is, in part, to be transported to the great Espartaco days of the eighties and nineties and a legion of afternoons not greatly different from this one. I loved what I saw then, and I love what I am seeing now. 

Wednesday 21 August – Three Weakened Toreros versus Six not Very Strong Bulls.

Miguel Ángel Perera and Emilio de Justo brought their recently injured frames with them and Sébastien Castella picked his up in the plaza. Only hours before, Perera had undergone medical treatment; Castella was gored while using the descabello on his first bull, but resisted going to hospital till he had fulfilled today’s obligations. It is hard to imagine what two broken ribs and a bruised liver and kidneys; a neck that it is difficult to rotate; and a 15-centimetre goring up the backside feel like. It is not hard to accept that toreros are what they are sometimes called: “superhombres”.

The first Núñez del Cuvillo bull weighed 563 kilos but was anovillado in appearance. That did not prevent it from charging well into four and a half beautifully templadas verónicas, taking two light pics willingly after vibrant charges; allowing a quite of slow, close and precisely controlled chicuelinas; and permitting a fine suerte de banderillas by Viotti and Blázquez. No wonder the toreros love the Cuvillos. Castella was not being ironic when he dedicated the bull to Isabel Lipperheide, but he won’t be fighting any of her bulls any time soon. The faena oozed confidence as Castella built a compact, efficient and pleasing piece of pretty filagree orthodox toreo to a very helpful little animal, more a Degas ballet dancer than a Dolores Aguirre. Things went awry as the end approached. Castella twisted the bull through an ugly arrimón of pegged naturales before thumping in an estocada entera and trasera that failed to drop the animal.  As he tried to descabellar, the bull raised its head and sent him flying high with its left horn ripping his flesh. His ovation rung in his ears as he limped to the infirmary.

Suitably and rather artistically bandaged, he welcomed ‘Ricardito’, a melocotón bull that looked impressive. It carried its weight listlessly and was distracted in the opening verónicas, and, though placed en sitio, twice ran away from the pic with the gusto it should have shown going towards it. The picador rode on to it for a third light pic. Generally, Castella cited from in front for his derechazos, and those and his pases naturales were phenomenal for a man so bashed and bloody.  When he seriously went to the left hand, the series were complete but made ragged by a bull with a seeking left horn. Back to the right, all was joined up and serene. In that phase, he was able to spice things up with a molinete and a chest pass of which an angel would have been proud. The close arrimón seems indispensable these days and these days are none the better for it. He worked the bull so closely that he was bumped by its passing flank. In the end, he killed with a bajonazo from a direct entry. He had won his saludos.

No doubt the entry level pontificators would have said that a torero who came to the plaza in a severely weakened physical condition was in no state to fulfil his obligations and should not have come. That Perera was physically weakened was obvious from his movements and his stiffness. But he had come and, ‘superhombre” that he is, he aimed to satisfy. He welcomed the impressive-looking bull with feet together delantales in which the cape was caught before he delivered a cornucopia of beautifully constructed verónicas. Twice placed en sitio, the bull took two light pics and charged for a copybook suerte of chicuelinas from Emilio de Justo. The bull, handsome though it was, lacked character or aggression, so the faena was a languorous, leisurely affair completely devoid of emotion or heart. There were plenty of nice-looking derechazos and some easeful naturales, but it was all very nursemaid toreo. Perera used his reach to place an estocada from a path that curved away from the embroque and was applauded.

Miguel Ángel Perera

The work with the fifth bull, ‘Pardillo’, started well. Though apparently watchful, it charged well for Perera’s opening verónicas and went well to the horse from proper placements to take two light pics with just a touch of reluctance. The picador, Juan Melgar, was applauded. And so was Finito Barrera after a precise placing of the banderillas. Perera started the faena on his knees with fragile but templados derechazos and pases de espaldas. The bull had a left horn with a finca on the tip and Perera built a faena based on naturales that was as beautiful and compact as it was surprising. As the work built up and the transmission sparked from sand to tendido, Perera dissolved into his habitual arrimón of close, twisting pases. Fortunately, there was not much of it, and he went to kill. It took an estocada corta and an estocada entera. More applause was the reward. As I savoured his genuine success based on courage, resistance and skill, I remembered his old detractors, “He is a wham, bam, thank you mam torero”, “He is a straight line despegado trickster”, “He could bore for Extremadura.” Most of them have gone now, but he is still here.

The third bull for Emilio de Justo was bizco, distracted on entry, and had the trace of a limp. It fell during his welcoming verónicas. And then, from proper placements, it took a long and a light pic with dogged persistence. Morenito de Arles and Pérez Valcarcel won salutes for their wonderful suerte de banderillas. The elegance with which de Justo walked the bull to los tercios with slow, low, derechazos, and brought it to a halt with a trincherazo to stop the watcher’s heart as it stopped the bull was a marvel. I should here give a lecture on the nature of taurine art, but I have done that dozens of times. Enough to say, it is hoped that the words “positioning”, “great cites”, “grace”, “ease”, “naturalness”, “temple”, “long”, “slow”, “linked”, appear again and again in my notes on a faena based on derechazos and naturales but peppered with such decoration as afarolados, pases por bajo and, to end, knee to the ground derechazos so long and slow they seemed eternal. De Justo entered well to place an estocada desprendida. That will not do in Bilbao, so his reward for creating a miracle was a single ear. ‘Postinero’ was loudly applauded in the arrastre.

‘Ponderado’ was a negro burracco so greyed by its white hairs that it all but merged in colour with the ashen sand of the plaza. It heeded the lure in the first lance, violently banged into the burladero de matadores after it, and pursued every cape placed in its vision like a wayward tank before falling into distraction. It was placed en sitio twice but failed to show any focussed attention and continued its wild charges. Valcarce and Algabeño gained its attention in another of their great suertes de banderillas. De Justo coaxed it into some derechazos, and soon had it convinced that charging was fun. Tall, erect, justifiably confident, de Justo kept things progressing with derechazos until he had, with skill and commitment, extracted what little aggression and character the bull had in it. It had very little, and he soon killed with a slightly low sword thrust.