In the time of Covid lockdowns throughout Europe, British newspapers were full of stories of Madrid being an exception to the rule (the PP-led local council being unsympathetic to the public health concerns of Spain’s PSOE-led government) and the playground of French tourists keen to escape the restrictions of their own country. So, given that Spain’s 2021 temporada began in mid-March and ferias took place in the city at Vistalegre, on the outskirts at Leganés, and in Córdoba, Aranjuez, Granada, Castellón and Alicante before any taurine activity got underway at Las Ventas other than a festival on May 2 that was considered by many as a piece of PP opportunism, the slow re-opening of Las Ventas was a disappointment.

It was not until Saturday, June 26, that the first proper corrida was held in Las Ventas, followed, on July 4, by a ‘Corrida de la Cultura’. Hopes were raised of a return to normality for Las Ventas as a plaza de temporada, but after those two events, nothing further took place until September. Talk was of a special Feria de Otoño, again raising hopes that the empresa, Plaza 1, would follow the lead of Pagés in Sevilla and mount a major autumn series. But, in the event, the Feria de Otoño turned out to consist of only a little more than normal - just six corridas and three novilladas (one sin picadores) spread over three weekends with a final event on October 12, Día de la Hispanidad.

This was a pathetic level of activity from a plaza that reckons to be (and is) the most important bullring in the world. It was not for want of pressure from Madrid’s afición, but it appears resulted from difficulties in proceeding within the confines of the contract that exists between Plaza 1 and la Comunidad de Madrid (CAM) and the empresa’s wish (in the absence of San Isidro, the plaza’s big annual money-spinner) to avoid the loss-making events that typify Madrid’s summer.

The existing contract continues in place until June next year, i.e. the end of the next San Isidro feria, whereupon a new contract, to be put out to tender shortly, will come into place. In the meantime, with the October 12 corrida having now happened, and within that overall sense of disappointment as to what Plaza 1 put on in 2021, it is worth looking back over Madrid’s temporada as a whole.

A festival triumph for El Juli

The festival on May 2 (conveniently taking place just before Spain’s local elections) was a joint promotion by CAM, la Fundación del Toro de Lidia and Plaza 1 as a charitable venture to raise funds intended to alleviate the economic situation of those groups of the bullfighting sector most affected by Covid-19. CAM modified a Ministry of Health order to enable the festival to go ahead with a maximum of 40% of the seats of Las Ventas filled, some 6,000 spectators. With a cartel comprising Enrique Ponce, El Juli, José María Manzanares, Miguel Ángel Perera, Paco Ureña, the rejoneador Diego Ventura and novillero Guillermo García, the event was promoted as the return of bullfighting to the capital and all tickets were duly sold.

The bulls were from various ganaderías and Enrique Ponce (in what may turn out to be his last Madrid appearance) had a particularly unfortunate time with two animals of Juan Pedro Domecq being sent back to the corrales, the valenciano eventually having to make do with a weak Capea murube that was the rejoneo sobrero. El Juli, however, had a good Garcigrande bull to torear and made the most of it, producing relaxed lances and then low muletazos, drawing the animal around him in figures-of-eight, and closing with an estocada trasera to win two ears. Diego Ventura also cut two ears, while single ears were awarded to Manzanares, Perera and (despite, or perhaps because of, two punishing volteretas) García.

Two ‘one-offs’

The next events to be announced for Las Ventas were a victorinada for June 26 and a mano a mano ‘Corrida de la Cultura’ for July 4 featuring Antonio Ferrera and Emilio de Justo with bulls of Victoriano del Río.

The victorinada was for Manuel Escribano, Sergio Serrano and Fortes, the latter suffering his traditional Madrid ill-fortune by dropping to his knees in a lance and incurring an injury that put him out for the rest of the season. Escribano and Serrano each cut an ear, Escribano for a brave and dominating performance with a hard-charging victorino and Serrano for a templada faena to a noble, astifino bull that some spectators thought was worthy of a vuelta en arrastre. The victorinos in general were well-presented, keen to the horse and made for an interesting afternoon.

The Corrida de la Cultura (with Las Ventas now permitted 50% capacity attendance) saw a major triumph for Emilio de Justo, who cut an ear from his first bull and two from his second, ‘Duende’, awarded a vuelta al ruedo. De Justo impressed with his naturales, his derechazos given without the ayuda supporting the cloth, and his estocadas, although the descabello prevented the extremeño from winning a further apendice from his last bull. Ferrera lost an ear with his swordwork on his first bull; disappointed on his second; and had no worthwhile material to work with on his third.

It was to be nearly three months before bullfighting returned to Las Ventas in the form of the Feria de Otoño.

The feria carteles

In July, Plaza 1 said they were working on a substantial Feria de Otoño, which, they reckoned, would contain all the figuras “including Roca Rey and Talavante”. In practice, neither of these were on the eventual carteles, while the nine-event feria was a diluted affair spread over three and a half weeks.

Following his success in a similar event at Mont de Marsan earlier in the year, Antonio Ferrera had opted to appear solo with six bulls of Adolfo Martín. That left 15 feria places for other matadors. El Juli (perhaps on the strength of his earlier festival triumph) claimed two spots, while the plaza’s second victorinada was assigned to Domingo López Chaves, Alberto Lamelas and Jesús Enrique Colombo. The main news was the return to Las Ventas after an absence of four and a half years of Morante de la Puebla, who had chosen to face alcurrucenes alongside Alberto López Simón and Ginés Marín. The remaining seven places went to Diego Urdiales, Manzanares, Paco Ureña, Emilio de Justo, Juan Ortega, Miguel Ángel Perera and Daniel Luque facing a predictable ganadería list of Victoriano del Río, Jandilla, Garcigrande and Santiago Domecq.

The novilladas con picadores consisted of one featuring the main triunfadores of 2021 (Isaac Fonseca, Manuel Perera and Manuel Diosleguarde) with bulls of Fuente Ymbro, and another with bulls of Antonio López Gibaja in which the main attraction was the Madrid debut of the latest Adame brother, Alejandro, alongside Alejandro Fermín and Ignacio Olmos.

Low-key beginnings

Allowable capacity was now 60% and priority was given to selling tickets in ‘packs’ of three, each corresponding to a particular weekend. But the feria got off to a poor start when the opening corrida on 24 September was put back to October 8 because of bad weather, the spectators - many of whom criticised the poor protection of the arena from the elements - having been in their seats for an hour or more before the decision was finally made known. The previous day’s novillada had seen an ear won by Manuel Diosleguarde, while Isaac Fonseca was tossed no less than three times and Manuel Perera twice, the extremeño receiving treatment in the infirmary in between his bulls.

The victorinada thus became the opening corrida of the feria, but, this time, the victorinos were generally disappointing, with only the two for Alberto Lamelas giving any chance of success, the jienense earning two ovations.

Another puerta grande for de Justo

The second weekend began with the second novillada con picadores, in which young Alejandro Adame duly made the most impression, albeit without cutting any apendice. In stark contrast, the following day’s Garcigrande corrida (the feria’s first ‘no hay billetes’) was a passionate affair.

El Juli, facing an opening bull that was able to charge from a distance in the faena, got the corrida off to a positive start with a performance that grew in intensity as it progressed and proved sufficient to cut an ear. The madrileño’s second, huge-horned, bull showed well against the picador but was not keen to charge and hooked in its faena, giving El Juli no chance of further success.

It was surprising when Emilio de Justo opted to dedicate his first faena to the spectators following competition with Juan Ortega en quites as his animal had been distraido in the opening tercio and drew whistles as the faena commenced. A series of derechazos, closed with a pase de pecho, silenced the protests, but there was a desarme when the cloth was moved to the left hand and from thereon the passes were single ones, the bull exhibiting a short charge that any amount of crossing could not overcome. A pinchazo and several descabellos followed an aviso.

The extremeño’s second bull took three puyazos, leaving the horse on its own accord in the first, taking a lengthy second pic, and receiving a third vara after an unplanned entry. Come the faena, de Justo met it down on one knee with muletazos and a chest pass, winning applause. The derechazos that followed were rapid but linked, the matador at great exposure to the bull. The naturales were risky and splendid too, and by the time Emilio was mixing passes with each hand, passing the animal de frente and closing series with trincherazos, the crowd had gone wild. A great estocada was followed by the fully merited award of two ears, chants of “Torero!” and, at the corrida’s end, de Justo’s second salida a hombros through Madrid’s Puerta Grande this year.

There was a lot of interest in the other torero on the cartel, Juan Ortega, following his strong showings in Sevilla’s San Miguel, but there was nothing doing with his first bull. It bucked and hooked and was generally uncontrolled and the matador chose to keep well away from the beast in numerous attempts with the sword. In his second faena, Ortega produced what the spectators hoped to see - stylish passes on both hands given with temple. There were some lovely ayudados por alto and naturales to end with and a good sword, but two attempts with the descabello lost the ear.

The weekend concluded with a disappointing Adolfo Martín encerrona for a below-form Antonio Ferrera. The extremeño annoyed Tendido 7 with a number of his ‘heretical’ judgements, but perhaps not his decision to ask to torear the sobrero - a Pallarés santacoloma - after all six adolfos had been taken out with their ears intact. A splendid tercio de banderillas followed, Ferrera sharing los palos with Fernando Sánchez, João Ferreira and José Chacón, and the faena, although it contained few linked passes, closed with an estocada recibiendo and was sufficient to finally bring an ear. Antonio then asked for the second sobrero too, only to be told the Reglamentos did not permit this!

A busy closing phase

With the postponement of the initial Otoño corrida to October 8, the sin picadores final of ‘Camino hacia Las Ventas’ the following day and further corridas on October 10 and 12 (both of which were sold out), the final phase of the feria was a busy one, albeit one that had little fanfare at the beginning before building to a climax.

On October 8, the bulls of Jandilla and Victoriano del Río were generally disappointing, with only the fifth (from Victoriano) applauded en arrastre. Manzanares survived a tossing and was customarily stylish with this animal, but, also customarily, tended to avoid giving close muletazos. Paco Ureña came closest to winning an ear from his jandilla, the murciano putting everything into his performance with a challenging opponent that also caught him at one point, inflicting a puntazo. A half-sword saw his efforts end in an aviso and saludos. Diego Urdiales, today’s director de la lidia, had very little to work with.

The next day’s novillada sin picadores saw no ears cut, but the young Mexican Rubén Núñez was duly acclaimed triunfador of the ‘Camino hacia Las Ventas’ certamen after taking saludos on his first bull and a vuelta on his second. The madrileño Juan Herrero obtained identical results in the arena, both novilleros losing ears with their swordwork. The third youngster, Alejandro Chicharro, had a poor afternoon.

The final Sunday of the feria saw El Juli’s second appearance, but his bulls from Santiago Domecq and La Ventana del Puerto provided little opportunity for further success. Miguel Ángel Perera drew what initially looked like more promising material, only for both bulls to quickly tire in their faenas, giving rise to protests from the tendidos and making linking impossible. The triunfador de la tarde was Daniel Luque, the sevillano closing an important season for him that should see his return as a feria regular next year with an ear-winning performance on his first bull. This animal had an unpredictable charge, but Luque gained ground with some superb verónicas, then applied both his brain and cojones to the faena, risking a lot to successfully bring off passes.

Morante’s return and the temporada’s third Puerta Grande

The critical atmosphere amongst the tendidos on the Sunday seemed absent come the closing corrida two days later, typified by one of the alcurrucenes falling repeatedly in a faena but not drawing whistles.

Morante de la Puebla got the corrida off to a superb start with a powerful performance, producing verónicas and rogerinas with the capote and then exciting derechazos, naturales, pases de la firma and remates to a fast-charging bull with the muleta. It was a showing that typified his 2021 season as a whole. Morante closed with a respectable estocada and was delighted to win his first ear in Las Ventas for 12 years. In contrast, there was nothing to gain from his second bull, but at least Morante showed the spectators that that was the case before cutting with the muleta and collecting the estoque.

Alberto López Simón (whose 2021 temporada has mainly taken place in third class rings) had an afternoon he will want to forget. Taking his first bull from a distance for an opening pass in the faena, he misjudged things and got severely thrown for his pains. Although he recovered to last out the corrida, he spent his two faenas pegando pases, with the muleta frequently caught on his bulls’ sizable horns, before killing well.

The first alcurrucén for Ginés Marín showed well in the opening tercio - so well that, in addition to the opening capework and charging strongly to the horse, it was given two strong quites of chicuelinas by its matador and Morante de la Puebla. Come the faena, the animal could only manage to accompany single passes.

The corrida closed on a magnificent note when Marín produced a wonderful performance on his second bull that saw him cut two ears and go out through the Puerta Grande. Things did not look promising at first, with little capework and a panicky tercio de banderillas, but the bull was superb in the faena and Marín equally good, bringing off outstanding, close and linked muletazos con temple. At Albacete, I criticised him for immaturity, but in Las Ventas he had the sense to know that the profundity of his muleta passes meant a lengthy faena was unnecessary. Several in the plaza, including Marín’s father, were in tears, so moved were they. Ginés closed with naturales de frente, before delivering an estoconazo. The bull was applauded as it held off against dying, but it fell in the end and its matador was justly awarded its ears.

Madrid’s appetite for 2022

The emotional scenes as Ginés Marín was carried round the ring, surrounded by youngsters, and then out into a packed crowd on the Calle Alcalá, the screens on their phone cameras shining, underlined the Madrid public’s strong appetite for los toros. Let’s hope - after a respectable tally of three Puerta Grande exits from just eight corridas this year - they will be rewarded with a full temporada in 2022.