On 06JUN15 I got to see a corrida de toros in Sanlucar de Barrameda. The fight featured large bulls (all over 500 kg 1100 lb) from Santiago Domecq. The three Matadors are shown in photo 4. They are Enrique Ponce from Valencia who has been in 2189 bull fights. Jose Morante who is from Sevilla and has been in 823 fights. The last matador, the most junior, was Alejandro Talavante from Badajoz. Alejandro Talavante has only been in 526 fights but was the star of the night. He got three ears and the other two only got none. Enrique Ponce did get an ovation for his second bull and his muleta work had the band playing; however, his escopada was sloppy and took three times to kill the bull. On Enrique’s first bull he had a hard time killing the bull also. His first two escopadas hit vertebrae or scapula. His third strike must have hit a major pulmonary artery as the bull squirted blood from the nose and died extremely rapidly. If you look at photo 25 you can see the bull bleeding out.
The Santiago Domecq bulls were large and powerful. One bull his the four foot high wooden barrera and broke a board. The 1st and 2nd pictures show the broken board and the temporary fix. The crowd was very angry as the workers fixed the fence as it was disturbing the solemnity of the fight.
The first act for all six bulls was unremarkable. The bulls were too big and too angry. They would run around the plaza and not pay the matadors attention. Picture three shows a bull turning too hard and going down in the first act.
The picadors were interesting. Each of the matadors had two picadors each for a total of six. Enrique Ponce’s first bull had a poor vara placement and the vara broke off the stick as shown by photos 11, 12 and 13. Pictures 5 through 10 show a picador going down. I mentioned these bulls were large and strong. The horse was fine as they wear protection. Primo de Rivera made it a Spanish law that all horses wear abdominal protection to prevent the visceral accidents of old. Once the vara is placed, the decision must be made if the bull will die or live. Photo 14 shows a white flag of the judge saying place the bandarillas and the bull will die.
Pictures 15 and 16 show bandarilla placement. In Sanlucar all three matadors had the banderillos in their cuadrillas place the shafts. The first bull of Enrique Ponce only had four placed and I do not know why. All the banderillas placed hit true.
The muleta work in the third suerte was the highlight of the night. Enrique Ponce’s second bull and both of Alejandro Talavante’s bulls got the band playing. Enrique Ponce has a website showing the different movements that can be done with the cape and muleta. I cannot follow them all. Enrique Ponce and Talavantes different styles were self-evident. Ponce would get on his knee and have an extended body posture and keep the bull close. Talvante did not move. He did very few turns. You can see him running the bull behind him and also one time the bull turned to sharp and went down. The end of the third suerte is the placement of the escopada. In nearly all the bulls it was not as good as it normally is. Each of the matadors took multiple attempts. I wonder if the bulls were too big to get a clean shot.
In the end Alejandro Talavante carried the night with three ears. Two in the first bull and one for the second bull. Since he had two ears he was carried on hombros or shoulders out of the main gate. Ponce did get an ovation for his second bull.
Sanlucar is an excellent place to see a bullfight. It is close to Rota, parking is easy and the weather was wonderful. I bought sol/cheap seats. The weather was overcast and the fight did not start until seven so this worked well. The tickets for poor seats were 45 euros. I did not know why this fight was expensive until I got the program and realized this featured very veteran matadors. The next fight in Sanlucar is 22AUG. Sanlucar only has two bullfights this summer. The 22AUG fight featured Jose Padilla and I look forward to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment