San Isidro, May 18: Moments of majesty, but no coronation

Back to Las Ventas for the third “no hay billetes” of the feria: Morante de la Puebla, El Juli and Tomás Rufo with bulls of Alcurrucén. At Talavera de la Reina on Sunday, that exact same combination of toreros and toros delivered a total of seven ears, with El Juli and Rufo leaving the plaza on shoulders.

Today’s corrida had its moments:

El Juli, in particular, had a strong afternoon. Commencing his faena to his first bull, Julián brilliantly placed it in the centre of the ring with an abrupt recorte. Then, despite the animal not having much of a charge, he extracted series of derechazos and naturales, some of the passes extended in length. He was careful to rest the bull, citing it from close up, as the faena progressed. It was a masterclass in squeezing a faena from an unpropitious animal.

With his second alcurrucén, he was better still - a faena de menos a más that led to some excellent passes on either hand. An ear was on the cards.

Morante de la Puebla’s first alcurrucén was very distracted and may perhaps have had some visual defect; in any event, it led to the maestro’s third faena de aliño of the feria. But come his second bull - perhaps spurred on by a quite of lovely chicuelinas from El Juli after the second vara - the tone of Morante’s toreo changed, initially in the form of some less-than-perfect verónicas but two exquisite medias in response to Juli, then in a faena begun with estatuarios and leading on to close derechazos and naturales, the marvellous temple involved being explained in part by the weak state of the bull.

If Las Ventas had a roof (and, after this windswept week, many spectators must be wishing it had), Tomás Rufo raised it with his exhilarating capework to his opening bull - a sequence of verónicas, a media verónica and a revolera that gladdened the heart and raised hopes for the faena, hopes that persisted after the bull’s impressive showing in las varas. After dedicating to the public, Tomás made a strong start to the faena, citing the animal from a distance for muletazos in the centre of the ring and producing series of close derechazos, stretched to the maximum.

But:

Morante’s artistry had to be viewed in the context of his weak bull and neither he nor El Juli could cap their performances with effective swordwork. The latter lost his ear with a leaping pinchazo and estocada.

An upsurge in the wind forced Tomás Rufo to relocate his opening faena to los medios, where his derechazos lost their length and fluidity, while his naturales were best described as scrappy. The best bull of the day, eventually killed with a pinchazo and bajonazo, had got away from him. It was taken from the plaza to applause, while there was a division of opinions over its matador. His other alcurrucén tired early in its faena, giving the toledano no chance of a reprieve.

So we were left with an outcome of bronca y ovación for Morante, two ovations for El Juli and división y silencio for Rufo. As luck would have it, we did get two wonderful pairs of banderillas on one bull (the sixth) from Fernando Sánchez, who then received one of the largest ovations of what was, in the end - and not helped by the quality of the bulls - another disappointing San Isidro 2023 corrida.