José Maria Mananares put together another great performance on the second sobrero and best toro and of the day from the El Serrano ganaderia. Manzanares’ counter parts did not have such luck with their lots. As usual and as expected, El Fandi thrilled the crowd with his banderillas but his animals weren’t up to the task. Fandi’s first toro was the first sobrero of the day from the Gavira ganaderia but had to be killed with the puntilla after falling and not getting up. Fandi’s second toro suffered a voltereta only to lose use of his hind leg during the lidia due to the voltereta. Alejandro Talavante did nothing of note. The announced toros from the ganaderia Torrealta were flojos y mansos sin casta.

El Fandi, silencio y ovación con saludos.
José María Manzanares, oreja y silencio.
Alejandro Talavante, silencio en ambos.

Gracias a mi amigo Jeff who forwarded me this priceless video of Fernanda y Bernarda de Utera. Captured in 1952, this is what life is all about. Toreo Sevillano as demonstrated by it creator and jaleo in the hot sun of Andalucia. ¡Vamos Ya!

Daniel Luque squeezed out an ear from the last bull of a long three hour corrida which saw the mansada encierro from El Puerto de San Lorenzo had the aficionados filing out of the plaza after the 4th toro. Manuel Jesus “El Cid” and Sebastian Castella could not put together any work of note with the difficult toros.

El Cid, silencio en ambos.
Sebastián Castella, ovación con saludos tras aviso.
Daniel Luque, silencio tras aviso y silencio y oreja tras aviso.

On the day of Antonio Nazaré’s Alternativa, Morante de la Puebla performed one of his best faenas in La Maestranza. The faena was vintage Morante. Textbook Veronicas opened the encounter with the Juan Pedro Domecq toro. Morante moved into a long faena with countless Derechazos a la Sevillana, Naturales with de Pechos parados con pies juntos. It was memorable up until he failed with the sword. At least two ears if not a rabo was washed away and the disappointment was visable on the maestro’s face. Morante added “le he puesto mucha pasión porque estoy en La Meca del Toreo, en la Maestranza de Sevilla”.

Enrique Ponce: estocada (silencio); y estocada delantera y caída (silencio).
José Antonio ‘Morante de la Puebla’: pinchazo, otro hondo y descabello (vuelta tras aviso); y estocada corta (silencio).
Antonio Nazaré, que tomaba la alternativa: pinchazo, estocada y cuatro descabellos (silencio); y estocada (silencio).

Rivera Ordoñez, El Juli and José Maria Manzanres provided plenty of drama in Monday’s corrida in La Maestranza. The former was tossed about after going in for the kill on the first toro of the day. The toro caught Ordoñez tossed him onto his forehead, flicked him off and then scraped his horn up the back side of the torero catching him by the chaquetilla. Juli gave an inspired faena on his first toro and although it was classic Juli, it seemed as a consolation to the performance earlier in the week where he missed his chance at exiting through the Puerta del Principe. Manzanares’ faena was technically great. He once again demonstrated his ability to take his toros “de menos a mas”. For me Manzanares resides on the border of could be great and not interested. This faena was heartfelt. It was technically sound, yet classically beautiful. A well rounded performance where this torero put his all into it and gave the Sevillanos a glimpse of just how great he could be.

Rivera Ordóñez, palmas y silencio.
El Juli, oreja y silencio.
José María Manzanares, silencio y dos orejas.
Se desmonteró tras parear al tercero, Curro Javier, donde brilló en la brega Juan José Trujillo. Precisamente, Trujillo también se desmonteró al parear al sexto.

In Sunday’s Novillada there was some good work by Pedro Carrero who earned a vuelta al ruedo and Juan Antonio Siro who after a sloppy and hesitant opening Farol de Rodrillas performed some impressive low and slow Veronicas. The story of the afternoon was the multiple cornadas (neck and scrotum) and tossings of banderillero David Moreno”Alcazabeño” on the last novillo of the afternoon. It appears the peones and novilleros failed on a number of occasions to make the quite which enable the novillo from El Jaral de la Mira to circle back and continue his attack. The official medical report was: PARTE MÉDICO DE DAVID MORENO “ALCAZABEÑO”: Dos heridas por asta de toro, una en cara anterior del cuello con una trayectoria hacia abajo de 15 cms y otra en el escroto con evisceración de un testículo. Puntazo corrido en cara anterior del muslo derecho. Fractura de la clavícula izquierda. Pronostico grave que le impide continuar la lidia. Fdo.: Dr. García Padrós.

El Jaral de la Mira. El fue herido de gravedad por el sexto. Carrero destacó con momentos de mucha clase en la lidia del primero de la tarde.

Morante de la Puebla’s spirited faena in front of his fellow Sevillanos saved an otherwise disappointing afternoon. The bulls from Jandilla were not willing and if it were not for Morante’s second, the entire encierro would have continued the erratic results so far of the Feria de Abril 2009 edition. Sebastian Castella’s first toro “falto fuerza” so much he was given the puntilla after falling during the faena de muleta.
Finito de Córdoba, silencio y leves pitos.
Morante de la Puebla, ovación con saludos y oreja.
Sebastián Castella, silencio y palmas.

El Juli had it within his grips. Alejandro Talavante had just resurrected his temporada with a great performance with his first toro from El Ventorillo. Juli was determined to answer the younger Talavante. Juli opened with a great series of Veronicas and in the faena, he brought the crowd to their feet. Having cut an ear from from his first toro, Juli was set to exit the LA Real Maestranza through the Puerta del Principe. It was not meant to be. After three pinchazo, there was no consoling the dejected Matador during his vuelta. El Cid was good with his toros but lost awards due to his failure with the sword as well. Finally, a corrida with all the matadores and the toros performing to expectation, but each matador left with the taste of triunfo on their lips and walking on their own feet.
El Juli, oreja y vuelta al ruedo.
El Cid, silencio y ovación con saludos tras petición.
Alejandro Talavante, dos orejas y silencio.

Not much to write about on the ninth Corrida of the Feria de Abril 2009. So eventless was the corrida, not even the highlights are complete.


Enrique Ponce, palmas y silencio.
José María Manzanares, saludos tras aviso y silencio.
Daniel Luque, palmas y saludos tras dos avisos.

The hype was there. The toros were from a famed ganaderia. Two local heros were set to face off in front of the Sevilla crowd who bought their boletos weeks ago. Morante de la Puebla and Manuel Jesus “El Cid” failed to deliver during the most anticipated Corrida of the 2009 Feria de Abril in La Maestranza. Morante’s beautiful Veronicas on his third toro and “El Cid’s close call after being knock down while trying to bregar the last toro were few highlights of the afternoon. The dreaded and much celebrated Victorinos were eratic, short of charge and mansos and placed their opponents en mucho peligro all afternoon. Morante said it best, “el hombre propone, Dios Dispone y el toro lo descompone. En este caso ha sido así, por eso el toreo es un milagro y cuando sale todo bien es tan bello”.

Morante de la Puebla, silencio tras aviso, leves pitos y palmas.
El Cid, silencio, saludos y silencio.

Colombiano Luis Bolívar did what his international colleagues, Sevillano Antonio Barrera and Frenchman Juan Bautista could not do. Bolívar cut an ear from the last toro of the afternoon, thus salvaging a disappointing Corrida where the encierro from Peñajara failed to impress. The award was the only one cut during Wednesday’s Corrida in La Maestranza. Bolívar did excellent with the tall toro especially on the right. Bolívar killed with a low sword but it was enough to win the judge over and give the Colombian the afternoon.

Antonio Barrera, silencio y silencio.
Juan Bautista, silencio y silencio.
Luis Bolívar, silencio y oreja.

Sevillano Salvador Cortés drew the only manageable toro from Portuguese ganaderia Palha. Cortés corrected his toro who started dificult with the left horn and put together a respectable faena in front of his home crowd. Cortés cut the only ear of the afternoon.

El Fundi, ovación con saludos y silencio.
Sergio Aguilar, silencio tras aviso y silencio.
Salvador Cortés, oreja y silencio.

Luis Vilches turned in an inspired performance on his first toro from Conde de la Maza but lost trophies with his failure with the sword. Vilches was so disappointed he could hold the tears down as he saluted the crowd in tears. Both Joselillo and Rafaelillo escaped certain goring by escaping close encounters with their foes. Joselillo was hit straight in the chest by his toro’s horn will killing and Rafaelillo managed to twist out of a failed a Porta Gayola.

Rafaelillo, ovación con saludos en ambos.
Luis Vilches, silencio tras aviso y ovación con saludos.
Joselillo, ovación con saludos y silencio tras aviso.

Morante o “El Cejas”?

Diego Ventura continued his dominant ways of 2008 by cutting an ear from each of his toros during the fourth Corrida del Abono in the 2009 Feria de Abril in Sevilla. It was another masterful performance by the Spanish Rejoneador.

Fermín Bohórquez, silencio y vuelta al ruedo.
Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza, saludos y silencio.
Diego Ventura, oreja y oreja.

El caballo Silveti, de Hermoso de Mendoza, ha resultado herido al sufrir una cornada en el quinto toro del festejo.