Morante widens his scope
As Morante de la Puebla, released now from la Casa Matilla, agrees his contracts for 2021, it is clear that he is determined to face a wider range of bulls than usual.
At the start of the temporada, it was announced that he would face miuras in Sevilla’s Feria de Abril (now postponed to the city’s Feria de San Miguel). Initially, this appeared to be one of those occasional one-off ‘gestures’ by figuras who ply the majority of their living facing more commercial fare.
However, the theme has been maintained, Morante telling the El Mundo newspaper in June, “I am bored with juanpedros and garcigrandes. I’m tired of the ‘good’ bull”.
Since then, he has faced alcurrucenes (encaste Núñez) at Castellón and - for the first time in his career - La Quinta bulls at Arles, an afternoon that also marked his first encounter with santacolomas for 16 years. In both corridas, his lot proved to be the least propitious, El Juli emerging as the day’s triunfador at Castellón and Pablo Aguado (who featured in both corridas) at Arles.
Ahead of Morante are dates with atanasios of El Puerto de San Lorenzo at Santander on July 23; bulls of Torrestrella - part-Domecq derivatives, but apparently now regarded by the figuras as “too spirited” - at Huelva on July 31; murubes at Lucena on September 5; and the patasblancas of Francisco Galache at Salamanca later that month. It is likely he will reappear in Las Ventas after a four-year absence in a second encounter with bulls of Alcurrucén. There are rumours that the sevillano also, at some point, wants to appear with bulls of Hermanos Quintas, descendants of the Vicente Martínez bulls that his idol Gallito used to face.
Perhaps the most unbelievable encounter of all, however, will take place at El Puerto de Santa María on August 7, when he will face six bulls of Prieto de la Cal. Given Morante’s penchant for not wasting time with unsuitable animals, cutting short their faenas, and Prieto de la Cal’s reputation for producing the occasional lidiable novillo, but not toros that lend themselves to modern toreo, this could prove to be the briefest six-bull corrida ever!
