Bullfighting
Masters of the cape
Simon Courtauld
In England the Queen Mother likes to go racing; in Spain she — Doha Maria de las Mercedes de Borbon y Orleans, La Conde- sa de Barcelona — goes to the bulls. She was in Seville last week, at the Feria de Abril, to watch several of the best matadors practising their art in the Maestranza ring, though unfortunately against mostly weak- legged and overweight bulls.
To those who would quarrel with the description of bullfighting as an art, it is worth pointing out that in Spain it is known as la fiesta nacional, and reports appear, under the heading Espectaculos, in the arts section of Spanish newspapers. Kenneth Tynan, who wrote an excellent book, Bull Fever, in the 1950s, saw the bullfight in dra- matic terms. Quoting C.M. Bowra on the task of the epic hero, he defined the spec- tacle as 'the pursuit of honour through risk'. The matador is trying, most of the time, to produce an aesthetically pleasing performance with an unpredictable and highly dangerous animal that is trying to kill him.
Many associated the violence and ritual of the bullfight with the repression and cru- elty of 19th- and 20th-century Spain, lead- ing to civil war and the years of isolation under Franco's dictatorship. Such a bar- barous practice, it was thought, would sure- ly not survive Spain's transition to a liberal, socialist society and its emergence into the modern European world. For those of us who are aficionados, it is satisfying to report that the bullfight is flourishing today as never before.
This is partly due to television: in the past two years live television coverage of fights at the major ferias has become commonplace. Interviews are regularly conducted with the matadors taking part, and a few have acquired pop-star status. Jesulin de Ubrique, who established a new record in 1995 for killing the largest number of bulls (341) in a season, on one occasion appeared before an all-female audience, some of whom threw their underwear and finally them- selves into the ring. In Seville last week I saw his car, which has his name on its doors, mobbed by a gaggle of excited teenagers.
Bullfighting is popular today among a wider cross-section of the Spanish public. Politicians like to be seen at the bullring of a Sunday afternoon; intellectuals embrace bullfighting as part of the culture of Spain; and in Madrid it is so fashionable and well attended that the feria of San Isidro, start- ing next week, which used to last for ten days, now goes on for four weeks, with fights held every day. Only in Galicia and Catalonia is there little interest in the bull- fight. Ironically, it is more popular in what was once French Catalonia, and in the French Basque country, where bulls are fought under the same rules as they are in Spain.
That Andalusia is the home of bullfight- ing can be confirmed by the statues com- memorating its past masters. Cordoba has two in honour of its famous son, Manolete, who was killed in the ring in 1947. One statue also depicts the head of the bull responsible, flanked by a pair of angels. (The bull's hide is exhibited in the Manolete museum in Cordoba.) In Seville a statue of the legendary Belmonte stands by the river Guadalquivir, in the poor dis- trict of Triana which has been the breed- ing-ground of so many matadors. The monument to his famous contemporary and rival, Joselito, fatally gored in the stomach in 1920, and buried in Seville, has 19 life-sized figures in bronze — weeping gypsies, bull breeders and matadors — all bearing the body of their hero.
The man who fights under the same name today, though no relation, appears to be a worthy successor to his soi-disant men- tor. Ten days ago at the Maestranza, with a set of perfectly executed veronicas and three unforgettable chicuelinas, Joselito left his audience of 13,000 in no doubt that he is the master of the cape. (The Club Tauri- no of London presented him last Novem- ber with its 'Matador of the Year' award.) Because some of the bulls tired quickly, opportunities for assessing performances with the muleta were limited. (Manzanares, retiring this season after 25 years, gave per- haps the best exhibition of low-handed passes with the arm fully stretched.) Fran- cisco Rivera Ordonez, whose father, grand- father and great uncle were bullfighters of the top rank, had a sensational first season as a full matador in 1995. At the Maestran- za this year, he set the plaza alight with a taiga cambiada on his knees, then repeated the performance with his next bull. With difficult animals he fought very close to the horns and killed cleanly. His style and courage generate immediate excitement; small wonder that he was thrown in half his fights last year.
Then there is Enrique Ponce, acclaimed as numero uno and already being spoken of as the matador of the century. At the age of 24 and in his sixth year as a matador, he is probably now at his peak. In Valencia in March he cut two ears from a bull that was thought to be almost impossible to fight. This season promises to be the most inter- esting for many years. It should be well worth finding an excuse to be in Madrid during the next month.
Simon Courtauld's Spanish Hours will be published this summer by Libri Mundi.
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