The carteles for San Isidro, running from May 8 until June 5, have just been announced at a gala event held in Las Ventas and many commentators are already referring to it as an “historic feria”.

Judging from the snippets of information that have come out over the past couple of months, the empresa Plaza 1’s strategy has been a traditional one of accommodating the big names first, then filling in the remaining corrida slots and leaving the novilladas and rejoneo to last.

The process began with Alejandro Talavante, absent from Spanish bullrings for the last three years. Since his ‘retirement’, the extremeño, now managed by Joselito, has seemed intent on mounting a campaign that emulates the José Tomás approach of limited appearances. Last year, it was announced he would only torear in rings permitted a minimum of 80% capacity; his sole corrida was in Arles’s September feria. His entourage also made it known he would not appear in any televised corridas. But that was all turned on its head earlier this year when it was announced he would make his Spanish comeback in Madrid for San Isidro, appearing on no less than four afternoons. (This wasn’t the end of a confused return to the arenas, as Talavante then tried for a place in Sevilla’s San Miguel carteles, only to be told this would only be made available to him if he also appeared in the city’s Feria de Abril - a possibility closed off to him as he had already agreed that his first contracts would be at the later San Isidro.)

Talavante has chosen to appear in Madrid with bulls of Jandilla (in a meaningless mano a mano with Juan Ortega), Garcigrande, Victoriano del Río and Adolfo Martín. It will be interesting to see what kind of reception he gets from the Madrid public. The critic Antonio Lorca has been none too impressed with the matador over the past couple of years, writing: “It’s to be hoped the day he appears in the puerta de cuadrilla he receives a general jeering, which is what this torero deserves given he has hidden away in undignified fashion from Spanish bullrings during the pandemic - a time when la Fiesta most needed the support of its participants.”

Four toreros have been given three appearances in the feria - Morante de la Puebla, Emilio de Justo, Ginés Marín (all triunfadores in Las Ventas’s truncated 2021 season) and Daniel Luque. Morante’s choice of ganaderías is interesting - juanpedros as usual but also bulls of La Quinta and Alcurrucén, the núñezs featuring in the Corrida de la Beneficencia that will also include de Justo and Marín. Luque will take on bulls of Montalvo, El Torero and Valdefresno.

Eleven toreros have been awarded two feria contracts, headed by Andrés Roca Rey, El Juli and Manzanares. El Juli is included in the La Quinta cartel, while Manzanares will take on atanasios of Puerto de San Lorenzo, but otherwise the fare for the three matadors is domecqs. Antonio Ferrera, Pablo Aguado, Juan Ortega, Diego Urdiales and Manuel Escribano have each been given two afternoons as well - of particular interest will be Ferrera’s appearance with victorinos; the Morante/Ortega/ Aguado afternoon with juanpedros; Urdiales’ showings alongside Roca Rey, Marín, Talavante and de Justo; and Escribano’s date with adolfos. The remaining three toreros with two corridas each are Román, Tomás Rufo and Gonzalo Caballero. Why the last of these is being featured twice is a complete mystery, but one of Román’s dates will be with victorinos, while Rufo is the current coming man, with a previous Madrid triumph behind him - his confirmación de alternativa alongside El Juli and Talavante (and with garcigrandes - a ganadería that also featured in his successful alternativa) should be an interesting event.

Then there are no less than 31 matadors granted one appearance each, headed by an aggrieved and desperate Paco Ureña who has forced his way into the feria at a late stage by offering to take on six bulls of different ganaderías (see my previous ‘Unjustifiably marginalised…’ article for more on this).

Including Rufo’s first afternoon (and perhaps with a nod to la Comunidad de Madrid’s contract for Las Ventas from June onwards, which places an emphasis on such events), the feria features no less than eight confirmaciones de alternativa (two of which enable Manzanares to maintain his wish not to be the first espada in any corrida). Some commentators have said this is Las Ventas putting its faith in the next generation of matadors, but that’s not entirely true in the cases of Damian Castaño (alternativa 2012) or Fernando Adrián (alternativa 2013), although the winner of last year’s Copa Chenel, for one, fully deserves his Madrid appearance. Salamanca’s Alejandro Marcos and Mexico’s Leo Valadez both became matadors in 2017, the pandemic occurring at the moment they would have wished to see their careers taking off, while the newest toreros confirming their status are Diego Carretero (alternativa 2018), who will be bravely facing pedrazas, rejoneador Guillermo Hermosa de Mendoza (alternativa 2019), the Portuguese Juanito (alternativa 2020) and the madrileño Rafael González who, on June 2, will be taking his alternativa and therefore confirming it at the same event.

San Isidro traditionally has an international flavour too and, this year in terms of matadors de toros, single afternoons are given to the Mexican Joselito Adame, the Venezuelan Jesús Enrique Colombo, the Frenchman Juan Leal and Peruvian Joaquín Galdós to add to the previously mentioned appearances of Roca Rey, Leo Valadez and Juanito. Both France (with Adrien Salenc and El Rafi as possible contenders) and Mexico (with El Payo, Luis David Adame and Sergio Flores, amongst others) might feel somewhat short-changed, but such is the situation when the cream of homegrown talent is eager for multiple afternoons in Las Ventas. Rejoneo fans may also feel miffed, as Plaza 1 has failed to agree terms with Diego Ventura, while Paco Ureña’s late offer of an encerrona has meant the feria’s planned rejoneo events have been reduced in number from three to two.

Of the remaining matadors with single afternoons, Alberto López Simón and Álvaro Lorenzo (both of whom have experience of being carried out through Madrid’s Puerta Grande) are on together, facing montalvos with Daniel Luque; Curro Díaz will be alongside Emilio de Justo and Ginés Marín for a corrida of El Parralejo, a ganadería making its San Isidro debut; Pepe Moral and Ángel Téllez join Joselito Adame with bulls of Arauz de Robles; El Fandi, José Garrido and David de Miranda will have their day, as will Javier Cortés, Francisco José Espada and Tomás Campos; and Fernando Robleño, Morenito de Aranda, Rubén Pinar, Octavio Chacón, Gómez del Pilar, Rafaelillo and Sergio Serrano have been called upon to face the toros duros of José Escolar, Samuel Flores (returning to Las Ventas after several years’ absence), Adolfo and Victorino Martín in the feria’s final week.

Finally, there are three novilladas featuring interesting ganaderías - Los Maños, Conde de Mayalde and Fuente Ymbro - and three of the four finalists in last year’s Liga Nacional de Novilladas, Isaac Fonseca, Manuel Diosleguarde and Jorge Martínez being joined by six other youngsters keen to succeed in Las Ventas.

All in all, a fascinating Feria de San Isidro is in prospect.