A progressive Sevilla temporada
Morante de la Puebla features on this year’s cartel
The final step in José María Garzón’s construction of Sevilla’s 2026 Feria de Abril was to deny Manuel Escribano a third feria appearance and introduce instead David Galván. It was the last move in ensuring that Sevilla’s new temporada represents a progressive development in comparison with the ultra-conservative approach of the previous Pagés regime.
The season - launched at a gala open to the public and streamed on Youtube at the city’s La Cartuja Center (again, in stark contrast to Ramón Valencia’s traditional press conference) - would have looked even more different if Garzón had not been successful in enticing Morante de la Puebla back to La Maestranza. In what may turn out to be the legendary torero’s only appearances this season (although I suspect not), Morante has signed up for the Easter Sunday corrida alongside Andrés Roca Rey and last year’s feria triunfador David de Miranda; two corridas in the Feria de Abril; and a revived Corpus Christi corrida where he will head an all-sevillano cartel with Juan Ortega and Pablo Aguado. He has also agreed to consider making a further appearance in September’s Feria de San Miguel (the place has officially been left open for a “matador por designar”).
The programming has been enlarged with two additional corridas on the weekend between Easter Sunday and the Feria de Abril’s commencement on April 14, and, taking these into account as well, Sevilla will see a total of 28 different matadors perform over the course of April, which must be a record for modern times. In addition to Morante’s and Roca Rey’s three appearances, nine toreros are put on twice - Juan Ortega, Alejandro Talavante, Pablo Aguado, Manuel Escribano, Borja Jiménez, Manzanares, Daniel Luque, David de Miranda and a resuscitated Pepe Moral - while no less than 17 matadors have single afternoons - Lama de Góngora, Fabio Jiménez, Álvaro Lorenzo, Rafael Serna, Molina, Miguel Ángel Perera, David Galván, Aarón Palacio, Víctor Hernández, Tomás Rufo, Diego Urdiales, Emilio de Justo, Javier Zulueta, El Cid, Fortes, José Garrido and Román. Sebastián Castella is a notable absentee given his performances in Sevilla in recent years; Ginés Marín misses out on Sevilla as well as Madrid; and Fernando Adrián is also left out; but the programming as a whole, with its incorporation of several ‘new generation’ toreros and a range of ganaderías that includes Alcurrucén, Fuente Ymbro, Santiago Domecq, Álvaro Núñez, Victorino Martín, La Quinta and Miura, represents an immense improvement over the Pagés years under Ramón Valencia.
For this writer, the most interesting Feria carteles are those of April 15 (Perera, Galván and Palacio with bulls of Santiago Domecq), April 16 (Álvaro Núñez bulls for Morante, Juan Ortega and Víctor Hernández), the April 18 victorinada mano a mano between Manuel Escribano and Borja Jiménez, April 20 (Morante, Borja Jiménez and Tomás Rufo with Matilla bulls), April 22 (Urdiales, de Justo and de Miranda facing El Parralejo bulls) and the April 25 La Quinta corrida for El Cid, Fortes and Garrido. The Feria also includes an interesting novillada of Talavante bulls for the Mexican Emiliano Osornio, the Portuguese Tomás Bastos and the Spaniard Julio Norte, while horse lovers will have to make do with Andy Cartagena, Lea Vicens, Guillermo Hermoso de Mendoza and Capea bulls for the rejoneo afternoon after Diego Ventura failed to agree terms.
There will be three post-feria novilladas in May, with Mario Vilau and Julio Méndez participating in the first and a string of Murteira Grave bulls in the third, and a further novillada on a Thursday in June that has Sergio Rollón on the cartel.
If there is any disappointment, it’s with the San Miguel carteles which, apart from an additional corrida and the open Morante/ANOther spot, and despite the return of Puerto de San Lorenzo after several years’ absence from Sevilla, provide predictable appearances for Manzanares, Talavante, Ortega, de Justo, Roca Rey, Aguado, Luque and Borja Jiménez. There will be four September events in all, as the feria will also feature an opening novillada with Garcigrande bulls for Olga Casado (who will now almost certainly see out the temporada as a novillera), Ignacio Garibay and Manuel Domínguez.
The gala, attended by 2,000 people, went by without any confirmation as to the televising of Sevilla’s festejos. In the recent past, José María Garzón has spoken of a wish to have a combination of pay-per-view (he has good relations with Onetoro) and free television (presumably Canal Sur), but nothing definite has been announced as yet.