Jock Richardson

Castellón’s La Magdalena 2023 comprised five corridas, one corrida mixta and two six-novillero festejos sin picadores. The feria unfolded in sunny, spring, weather with temperatures dropping as the sun lowered and shade covered the tendidos. Perhaps we should start with the reprehensible.

THE REPREHENSIBLE

Though the bullring looked comfortably populated, the attendances were relatively poor, the half-way mark only being surpassed on the days on which Roca Rey and El Juli and Manzanares appeared. It is disappointing that in a community where there is no lack of interest in the bulls, so few should wish – or be able to afford – to attend corridas.

Apart from the two murubes for Diego Ventura, two atanasios in the El Juli/Manzanares mano a mano, and the six victorinos for the opening day, every other of the bulls was from the domecq bloodline. These two great figuras did not condescend to invite the sobresaliente to perform a quite! Perhaps that is because, as was common in all the corridas, there was very little picing done. No sooner had the generally nondescript toros felt a single pic – and sometimes before they had done so – the matador was waving for the change of suerte. Is it too much to hope for that we will see bulls that can take two pics in a plaza de segunda? Surely this reprehensible aspect of la Fiesta could be remedied, and chroniclers enabled to discuss quites.

*Young Marco Pérez on a more successful appearance (image from contrabarrera6.es)*

There is a youngster called Marco Pérez doing the rounds and if his toreo was as good as his publicity, his rise would be meteoric. He was presented after the Tornay corrida with traje corto, and his personal paseíllo in what was billed as a clase práctico with a calf of Talavante. The matador got wide coverage in the announcements of the event, but there was no sign of him in the plaza. Unfortunately for Pérez, the crowd, and any possible notion of what the future will hold for the youngster, Talavante’s animal was a disaster: totally distracted, manso and seeking to escape it had the lad careering around the ring in his efforts to engage with it in single pases interspersed with long chases. I felt sorry for the child and angry for those who had organised the spectacle.

THE NOT SO GOOD

It is perhaps unkind to say that toreros who do not perform up to expectations are “not so good”, especially when the bulls are weak, uncooperative, cowardly or some of these things. Perhaps it is cruel to say that a torero should not have bothered to come.

Miguel Angel Perera took on the victorinos on the first day. They were too much for him. Apart from a brief period in his second, which almost warranted the title “alimaña”, to which he pegged some beautiful naturales, it was as if he lacked ambition or real intent to rise to his challenges.

Diego Urdiales cut an ear from the first of his Tornay bulls. It was a complex beast with a reluctant charge that threw hooks erratically. At one point, it ripped his pants from knee to waist. That, and his courageous return, raised the temperature enough to allow the President to give him an ear from a sparse petition. Diego did not, however, rise to his usual standards.

El Fandi appeared with the Tornays, which scarcely warranted the appellation toros bravos. I can detect no change from the El Fandi we were watching twenty years ago: florid and skilful with the cape – there was a spectacular zapopina in one of his bulls – athletic, competent, but often inaccurate, with the banderillas; fast and uncontrolled with the muleta and a regular killer. It is not surprising that he attracts audiences, is popular and often ends up near the top of the escalafón. For those with accurate measurement tools, he will never be more than not as good as he could be.

It may sound churlish to judge that a man who cut three ears, one from an Atanasio and two from a Garcigrande, belongs in the not so good category. Perhaps my compañera’s remark as he loitered out of one of his series towards the end of his one-ear faena will explain it, “He hasn’t even broken sweat!” El Juli picks his bulls so that he can perform “artistic” faenas with them. He picks them well and he can do beautiful things with them. Often, though, as with his Atanasio in Castellón, the work lacks tension, drama, or any suggestion of danger. His Garcigrande was not received well by the crowd and he had it under control with a few masterful pases. The docility of the bull and the ease of the matador did not go down well and he resorted to a lengthy arrimón of close passes, including luquesinas, inappropriate to a mature classical torero or a weak rag of a bull; naturally, the public were persuaded and he cut two ears. He was not nearly as good as he can be.

Manzanares was, to be kind, unlucky in the draw. Three weak, nondescript toros did not give him any real chance to be as good as he can be or could have been. He did kill his second with a fulminant estocada and cut an ear.

Sebastián Castella has returned from whatever cave he has been skulking in for the past few seasons and he hasn’t changed a bit. He is still linear, distant, apparently risk-taking, and very, very, repetitive. There was enough of his old self to get him an ear off his first bull, which had thrown him spectacularly, but in general there was no change.

THE GOOD

The last time I wrote about Antonio Ferrera, for a very small audience and by invitation, I was scathing about his histrionics with the Adolfos in his encerrona in Madrid. As he fought his Victorinos in Castellón, there were plenty of theatrics as he flashed his azure, silken, cape in lidia-directing flashes or peregrinated with bodily gestures and muleta prestidigitations while resting the bull. But he was directing the lidia and he was resting the bull! And his faenas, particularly that to his second bull, a strong, durable, and noble Victorino, were thoughtful, mature, structured, and masterful. I think he deserved his two ears. And so did Paco Ramos, a local lad with more experience in Peru than on the Valencian plain, who put heart and soul into toreando bulls tending towards the pesky end of the spectrum with a coolness, maturity, and application of los cánones that were heart-warming.

It has taken Daniel Luque a long time to grow into a figurón del toreo, but he has done it. The maturity with which he approaches his work, his courage, his application of los canones his style, now give him the air of an elder statesman. In my opinion, he tends to extend his faenas for too long, especially with the luquesinas to which he seems addicted, but that could not detract from what was an excellent performance justly rewarded with an ear from each bull.

I still do not believe that Roca Rey deserves the title “figura del toreo”. Some may have read my analysis of his triumph in Bilbao 1922. In Castellón, he held out a great deal of hope. He wisely, did not give his first, an Olga Jiménez, the time of day. It was weak, slow, and weary in the charge. With the fourth, a García Jiménez, from the same ganadería but with a different character, he did very well. It was weak and needed gentle treatment to keep it on its feet and to allow Roca Rey to extract its positive qualities. Perhaps it was the need for careful, thoughtful, treatment that denuded the faena of histrionics – his arrucina was done without grotesquery and did not seem out of place – and made him produce toreo that was compact, organised, measured, and satisfying. For an aficionado who is convinced by toreo that is clean, controlled, and appropriate, this was very good indeed. When he finished with a perfect estocada, he had won his two ears.

Francisco de Manuel and Tomás Rufo: now there are two names to conjure with.

Francisco de Manuel arrived from a successful afternoon in Valencia four days before to share the Matilla cartel with Castella and Roca Rey. His ambition is beyond doubt and his desperation to please limitless. Unfortunately, the latter led him towards a toreo salpicado with splashes of tremendismo. Indeed, he spent long periods with his first on his knees and the toreo was rough and disorganised. Still, for those who like that sort of thing – many, it is obvious – that is the sort of thing they like. He rounded off his somewhat random activity with a spectacular estocada and won an ear. His second bull was stronger and more focussed. His faena to this one was a little more clearly structured and had phases of serene and smooth toreo. He cut a second ear. Though apparently inexperienced, he did win la Copa Chenel in 2022, has triumphed twice in Peru and was the CTL novillero of the year in 2018. So far, faith in him is being justified.

Tomás Rufo has lost the rough edges of the recently qualified matador – if he ever had them. Indeed, he cut four ears in his alternativa in 2020 and it takes a painstaking search through the records to find the few of his 70 or so corridas in which he has failed to cut at least one ear. My experience of him is limited but so far he has never failed to impress. Why? He tries to produce toreo puro without superfluities; his positioning is outstanding; and his first faena to a strong, enduring, long-charging first bull was unfolded with an utterly phenomenal sense of temple. I have followed many careers from debut to maturity and often retirement - Antonio Ferrera; Joselito; El Fundi; El Bote; Rafaelillo; and a host of others. Never, since the morning we saw El Juli wear lights for the first time, have I felt that here we have a relative youngster with all the qualities in place to allow him to become a great torero. It was an impression that remained untarnished by his imperfect kill at the end of a similarly satisfying faena to his second bull.

I wonder if it is the supreme docility of the bulls, their nobility, and the fact that they are seldom properly picced, that allows the banderilleros to shine so brightly. Whatever the reason, we live in an age of very fine banderilleros. We saw many a very fine pair in this year’s Magdalena.

The good, the not so good and the reprehensible at La Magdalena

Jock Richardson

Competition at Arenas de San Pedro

How do you become a figura?