Preview of a streamed San Isidro

For the foreign aficionado, still restricted in terms of international travel, there was excellent news this week when it was announced that Toño Matilla’s 11-event Feria de San Isidro at Madrid’s Palacio Vistalegre was to be televised after all.

At the end of last week, news had emerged that the negotiations with Movistar were proving difficult. According to the Cultoro website, this was because Movistar were only prepared to offer a broadcasting fee of 84,000 euros per corrida - the same fee the company had agreed with la Fundacion del Toro de Lidia to show each festejo in the Gira de la Reconstrucción 2 planned for this year, although the Gira is based in 3rd class plazas and features just two cuadrillas and four bulls per corrida and its second series would have little figura involvement. Now that agreement has been reached, the feria will not only be televised in Spain on Canal Toros, but also streamed live around the world through Movistar’s Plaza Toros TV platform.

Presumably, this will be a relief to Snr. Matilla as, given the feria is built upon the presence of figuras and is taking place in front of Covid-restricted numbers of spectators, he must have assumed broadcasting fee income would be part of the feria economics. As ever, we don’t know exactly what the participants are being paid, but one matador, Antonio Ferrera, has already withdrawn from the carteles on the grounds he wasn’t being offered enough money.

With an 11-day programme, compared to the month-long Feria de San Isidro of recent years at Las Ventas, this will not be the San Isidro we have grown used to. Gone are the minority encastes; the modestos have been largely confined to two carteles; and the rest of the feria is figura-packed. Essentially, this feria represents the best that the commercial Spanish bullfight has to offer.

There is little international flavour, with Andrés Roca Rey and Lea Vicens the only non-Spanish participants (Juan Leal must be disappointed not to secure a place), but the only leading matadors absent from the feria are Antonio Ferrera and Alejandro Talavante, who had a major falling-out with Matilla two years ago and has said he won’t return to the bullrings until at least 80% capacity is permitted. Casa Matilla have built the feria around Roca Rey, El Juli, Morante de la Puebla, Manzanares, Pablo Aguado and Paco Ureña, each of whom will be appearing twice. Enrique Ponce, Finito de Córdoba, El Fandi, Daniel Luque, Miguel Ángel Perera, Emilio de Justo, Diego Urdiales and Juan Ortega also feature. Of particular interest will be the May 19 mano a mano between Roca Rey and Pablo Aguado (the bulls have now been confirmed as coming from Garcigrande, Núñez del Cuvillo and Jandilla) and the next day’s cartel of Perera, Ureña and coming man de Justo. The rejoneo cartel features the de Mendozas, father and son, and Lea Vicens, while the novillada brings together the promising youngsters Antonio Grande, Tomás Rufo and Manuel Perera.

To kick the feria off, there is a cartel of three of the best of today’s young matadors - Alberto López Simón, Álvaro Lorenzo and Ginés Marín - while the series closes with its sole ‘torista’ cartel of Juan del Álamo, Román and José Garrido facing adolfos. It’s unusual to say that every cartel of a feria holds interest, but in this case it’s true.

A big question-mark, however, hangs over the bulls. Palacio Vistalegre is a 2nd class plaza, so will the bulls reflect this, or will they carry the trapío that Madrid spectators have become used to at Las Ventas? Apart from the alcurrucenes and adolfos, plus the murubes for the corrida de rejones, the ganaderías are all of the Domecq encaste (indeed, its ‘handpicked’ variety), so it remains to be seen to what degree of challenge the toreros will be put. Certainly, we can anticipate that the more critical elements of Las Ventas’s spectators will be present at Palacio Vistalegre and, as ever, will make their views known.

Nevertheless, San Isidro 2021 represents a beacon of hope after the slim pickings of the 2020 temporada and this year’s programming to date. And, with Plaza Toros TV aiming to repeat each corrida four times during the subsequent 24-hour period, there should be a showing that enables easy watching in each of the world’s timezones.