A beautiful work by Ángel Téllez for a spring afternoon in Madrid

At the halfway point of a bullfight of almost three hours, with a third bull from Arauz de Robles dull but noble, a splendid performance by Ángel Téllez could be seen on Tuesday in the spring afternoons of Madrid. Impeccable, rigorous, of a very expensive category, a model of good bullfighting. Elegant, brief and precise. Example of temperate bullfighting. Quite a revelation. Not for those who were on the matador ring, forcibly stopped during the parenthesis of the pandemic. Yes for the vast majority. The return to the ring, a small prize for such a rich work, was clamorous. Of those that announce the arrival of a new bullfighter.

Being the task of Téllez the event of the afternoon, it happened that, having just crossed the equator, when opening with a statuary attached to boards, Joselito Adame suffered a frightening somersault. The bull, large, on a journey to querencia, was defeated by the left hand and in a violent zigzag seized the bullfighter from Aguascalientes, set him on fire and threw him against boards and stirrup. Then he fled.

Joselito seemed to be unconscious. Curled up in a fetal position, completely helpless. Companions from the group and banderilleros arrived to carelessly protect him from the bull, which was on the loose and could still be a threat. It was Fernando Sánchez, the great Toledo rehiletero, who managed to take the bull out of the danger zone. At the end of the run, the medical part attested to a cervical contusion that could have been fatal. In the memory of many, the serious injury to the vertebrae that Emilio de Justo suffered right here on the afternoon of Palm Sunday was fresh. It wasn’t that much.

What came later was that, barely recovered, pale and broken, Joselito got involved with the bull, came to the middle, gave him distance and brought him by the right hand, and he did this in two clean batches, linked and fastened. Brusque, crude perhaps slightly chopped, the bull protested by the left hand and Adame had to open it. He resumed the task by the clear hand -delivered attacks- and before the equalizer he fastened with an open batch with the pass of the flowers and closed with another sample of the a-Mexican repertoire of Victoriano de la Serna: the frontal Valencian girls, laserninas, according to the catalog of muleta bullfighting.

Despite the effort -without extra gestures, with part of his scalp ripped off and bleeding- Joselito found himself faced with the uncompromising demands of those who refused to value the heroic nature of the work. Most broke down to clap their hands in a memorable return to the ring. Adame walked as if lost, floating on the sand. And then he went to the infirmary.

The so alarming turn that the bullfight suddenly took did not make us forget the beautiful work of Téllez that had just been seen and savored. The bullfight with the left was incredibly slow. Two batches of anthology, underlined with dry olés. Final detail: two naturals from the front, linked with a trench and the pass from chest to feet together looking at the laying. A gesture of sufficiency and security. In removes in that third bull Joselito and Téllez rivaled. Adame, by gaoneras, in the middle, with a long flurry of finishing and the cape on the shoulder in the rudeness. Téllez, for chicuelinas and long silky.

wise bullfighter

The run started very bumpy. Due to cripples, the first one from the lottery and the first hat, from the Borrero brothers, were returned. The second hat, from the iron of the Borrero that is announced Chamaco -the nickname of his father-, moved a lot and well, humiliated and repeated. The bull with which Joselito Adame came from Mexico to celebrate fifteen years of his alternative was a rebound. A task of a wise bullfighter to choose distances, give the bull rope and lower his hand because he always had the bull in his hand. In the batch auctions, which were many, Joselito finished off with pinwheels in a very varied way. The pinwheel of adornment and resource, and boast.

Pepe Moral, in an unlucky afternoon, took the meekest of the draw -the second- and a fifth with which he insisted without faith and hitting too many voices. Despite spending two and a half hours in the square, the people waited for Téllez. But with the sixth bull, stopped, uncertain because he was distracted, loose from all the trips, it was completely impossible to repeat. The task was serious and worthwhile. Not bright.