The LXVII Goyesca Bullfight of Ronda, which packed the plaza of the Real Maestranza, ended yesterday with the rejoneador Diego Ventura and the bullfighters José María Manzanares and Juan Ortega carried out on shoulders, Ortega being, ultimately, the author of the highest quality bullfighting in an event that had been preceded by the aura of Morante de la Puebla, reports Álvaro Rodríguez del Moral.
Read more Rosa Maria Duran, a reference of the Catalan exile in Mexico, dies at 99 years old
With this event, which had sold out all available tickets within hours of going on sale — five months ago — the normal course of this annual bullfight resumed, which had not been held in 2024 and 2025 while the structural consolidation works of the stone arcades were completed, which have left, besides a safer venue, a new polychromy of the stands now presented in red ochre.
The main focus was on the presence of Morante de la Puebla, who had chosen a peculiar deep blue suit, more romantic than Goyesque, to appear in this recovered Goyesca in which he made the parade wrapped in an immense crimson cape, gold braided, and wearing a nineteenth-century montera held with an old chinstrap.
His first barely engaged with the cape and raised his head in the only lance he took. The audience turned against him while the bullfighter from La Puebla realized he was empty of all energy. He did not waste time and quickly went for the sword.
Morante swayed his whole body as he received the fourth. A very beautiful long cordobesa left the bull positioned before the horse, but the animal came out of the peto making sudden stops. With the muleta in hand, his matador was again disappointed by a jumpy and short charge, without any commitment, worked by Morante with his usual dedication in a composed and quietly meritorious performance in which there was no possible enemy.
Manzanares, one of the bullfighters who has appeared most frequently in the Goyesca of Ronda, enjoyed the varied cape reception of the second, of scrawny appearance. But the bull broke a horn on the peto which further overshadowed the already poor presence that had put the audience on alert.
The bullfighter from Alicante tried to link the faena with the crowd against him, and the animal, with its dull nobility, charged the muleta in a disorderly way.
Manzanares kept his composure in a faena of mere appearances in which he seemed to bullfight in a salon to a limping cart that he disarmed with an ugly sword thrust on the charge, confirmed with the descabello. With the fifth, which crawled on the cape, the decoration was not going to improve much. Manzanares worked in a long and tenacious task, composed in form, to take advantage of the drinkable charge of an animal that, although it threatened to run away, showed nobility with the muleta. He caught it with a receiving sword thrust and cut two ears as generous as forgettable.
Juan Ortega appeared for the second time in his bullfighting life at this event. He did so dressed in the most genuinely Goyesque suit, tailored in the Madrid tailor Santos, as the culmination of a thorough historical research work that brought about a true journey through time, reinforced by the strength of the Ronda setting.
Read more Critically injured after jumping from a fourth floor after stabbing three people
The bullfighter from Seville linked a handful of estimable verónicas before galloping with chicuelinas. He opened with ayudados, deeper below than above. And the faena began to flow on the right side and was enlivened in a graceful molinete before tracing a handful of naturales that ended up resolving the deficiencies of his enemy’s charge.
Ortega synchronized with the pasodoble La Concha Flamenca in a passionate series with the right hand before tightening again with the other hand at the end of a faena, linked with excellent chest passes, and finished with a sword thrust and descabello to carry off a weighty ear.
With the sixth, he drew, one by one, several of his lances finished with a graceful larga. Ortega dedicated it to José Miguel Arroyo, with whom he shares ties of friendship and admiration, before starting to bullfight with simple beauty, sublimated in a very slow change of hands. The bullfighter from Seville maintained that natural poise and drew excellent naturales before returning to the right hand.
But a ‘pescao’ cartridge opened the door to a new stretch of excellent naturales that preceded the sword thrust that closed the faena, and a global performance, the one with the greatest artistic content of a Goyesca that restored continuity to the event. He carried off two ears that had another entity.
The rejoneador Diego Ventura had opened the plaza after going out through the main door with authority in the morning equestrian bullfight. He dispatched a Ribeiro Telles specimen, reluctant in behavior, with which he once again put everything on the line thanks to a precise ride that included flourishes, such as dispensing with the headstall in a two-handed pair that crowned a dedicated performance well finished with the steel, which served him to go out on shoulders again.
Ribeiro Telles, Garcigrande/Ventura, Morante, Manzanares, Ortega
A bull from Ribeiro Telles, for horseback bullfighting, slow and reluctant. And six from Garcigrande, very uneven in presentation. The first was empty of everything; the second, unacceptable, was very dull; the third, with its defects, allowed itself; the fourth was lackluster; the fifth was noble and ran away, and the sixth was noble.
Diego Ventura: two ears.
Morante de la Puebla: silence and applause.
José María Manzanares: silence and two ears.
Juan Ortega: ear and two ears
Ronda bullring, September 5. LXVII Goyesca Bullfight. Sold out on a summer afternoon. The plaza of the Real Maestranza reopened its doors after two years of consolidation works on its stone arcades.
Read more Trump’s envoys meet with Zelenski to try to relaunch peace negotiations
