Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa | |
|---|---|
| Format | Action-adventure, telenovela |
| Created by | Johnston McCulley |
| Developed by | Telemundo-RTI Colombia with Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) |
| Starring | Christian Meier Marlene Favela |
| Country of origin |  Colombia United States |
| Language(s) | Spanish |
| No. of episodes | 122 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Patricio Wills Hugo León Ferrer |
| Location(s) | Bogotá, Villa de Leyva and Cartagena, Colombia |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Telemundo Caracol TV |
| Picture format | HDTV |
| Original run | February 12, 2007 – July 23, 2007 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | La Esclava Isaura |
| Related shows | Zorro (TV series) |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa (The Sword and the Rose) is a Spanish-language telenovela based on Johnston McCulley's characters. Telemundo aired it from February 12 to July 23, 2007. This limited-run serial shows the masked crusader as a hero torn between his fight for justice and his love for a beautiful woman. Telemundo president Don Browne called this show "without doubt the best production offered on Hispanic television in the United States today."[1]
This series was produced by Telemundo, Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) and RTI Colombia. It was the network's most successful series of 2007[2] and its biggest seller in international syndication.[3] Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) has asked Telemundo to produce a sequel.[4]
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The melodrama loosely follows the retcon of Zorro from the 2005 novel by Isabel Allende, yet also uses the major characters from the 1950s Disney series. It shows a fantastic, ahistorical version of colonial Los Angeles full of romance, royal intrigue, and witchcraft, even polygamy. The city is populated with gypsies, slaves, clerics, cannibals, conspirators, rebellious Indians and Amazon warriors, along with Spanish settlers, soldiers, pirates and mestizo peasants.
The hero, Don Diego de la Vega, adopts the secret identity of Zorro, the masked avenger. Instead of being a Spaniard, however, Diego is now a mestizo born in the 1790s to a white father, Don Alejandro de la Vega, and his wife, a Native American warrior named Toypurnia, who was given the name Regina when she married Alejandro. (Curiously, the de la Vegas also own at least one slave, Delores, who is Diego's nanny and conserje of the family house.)
Diego learned his acrobatics and fencing skills in Barcelona, under the tutelage of a great swordmaster. Remembering the injustices he saw as a child, he returned to his family's California hacienda. Now he lives as both a nobleman and a vigilante, fighting imperialist oppression. He is backed by the brotherhood of Zorro, a secret society called the Knights of the Broken Thorn.
Since this is a telenovela, much of the drama focuses on romantic melodrama and family intrigue. Here, Zorro falls in love with a beautiful young widow, Esmeralda Sánchez de Moncada. She arrives in California with her sister Mariángel Sánchez de Moncada and her father, Fernando Sánchez de Moncada, the newly appointed governor -- and villainous dictator -- of Los Angeles.
The hero must challenge a host of evildoers, branding them with the distinctive Zorro “Z” – made from three swift scratches. The story arc focuses on mysteries concerning Esmeralda's long-lost mother and the man whose atrocities changed Diego's life forever. Their resolution threatens to shake the Spanish Empire.
In this story Don Diego is sexually active. Much of the show spotlights the two sisters whom he allegedly impregnates outside of wedlock. One of these women is Esmeralda, who winds up imprisoned, starved and tortured. The other, Mariángel, plots to steal the de la Vega fortune. Both pregnancies lead to tragedy.
From Telemundo's promotional copy:
At heart, Zorro is not different from other men in his need to love and to be loved, his desire to fall in love and form a family, and his ambition to find the ideal woman. Will he obtain them?"[5]
The opening sequences show a shot of Diego looking at his mask. "Tú y yo estamos enamorados de la misma mujer," he says. The epigram translates as "you and I are in love with the same woman."
[edit] Episodes
See the total episode list and recaps at Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa episode guide.
[edit] Production
Zorro began filming on November 8, 2006 in Bogotá, Villa de Leyva and Cartagena, Colombia.[6] Telemundo and RTI Colombia developed the show with Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), while CPT Holdings is listed as copyright holder. Venezuelan screenwriter Humberto "Kiko" Olivieri, a fan of Disney's Zorro, developed the story.[7] Cardinal Olivieri, a supporting character on the show, has the same last name.
Telemundo aired this novela with English subtitles on the default closed captioning channel, CC1. The network normally broadcast translations on CC3, which is not available on many older TV sets. It also expanded two weeks of March episodes to 90 minutes and several episodes in May were extended to 75 and 90 minutes.
On June 22, Telemundo announced Zorro is in its final chapters.[8] After the July 23 finale, La Esclava Isaura expanded into its time slot.[9] This series is also known as Zorro: La Telenovela and Zorro: La Novela.
[edit] Changes
The originally-announced storyline began with Don Diego as the protege of a great English knight, Sir Edmund Kendel.[10] He returns home to California to find his land under dictatorship, then taking up Zorro's mantle.[11]When the show aired, it was the Moncada family that arrived in California, with Esmeralda having become a rich widow.
[edit] Cast
- Christian Meier .... Diego de la Vega alias Zorro - main hero
- Marlene Favela .... Esmeralda Sánchez de Moncada - main heroine
- Arturo Peniche .... Fernando Sánchez de Moncada - governor, father of Esmeralda and Mariángel
- Osvaldo Ríos .... Don Alejandro de la Vega - father of Diego, in love with Almudena
- Jorge Cao .... Padre Tomás Villarte - priest, mentor of Zorro
- Erick Elias .... Renzo - gypsy, in love with Esmeralda
- Natasha Klauss .... Sor Ana Camila Suplicios - troubled nun
- Harry Geithner .... Comandante Ricardo Montero de Avila - enemy of "El Zorro", evilest villain
- Héctor Suárez Gomís .... Capitán Anibal Pizarro - accomplice of Montero, villain
- Andrea López .... Mariángel Sánchez de Moncada - not capable of love, second evilest villain
- Lully Bosa .... Almudena Sánchez de Moncada - sister of Fernando, aunt of Esmeralda and Mariángel
- Andrea Montenegro .... María Pía de la Vega - sister of Alejandro, former love of Fernando
- Ricardo González .... Bernardo - mute, sidekick of Diego
- Adriana Campos .... Yumalay/Guadalupe and Toypurnia/Regina - Indian, in love with Alejandro
- Raúl Gutierrez .... Olmos Berroterran de la Guardia - hunchback, villain
- Carmen Marina Torres .... Dolores - slave, nanny of Diego
- Ana Bolena Meza .... Sara Kali/Mercedes Mayorga de Aragon - mother of Esmeralda
- César Mora .... Sargento Demetrio López García - sergeant
- Margarita Giraldo .... Azucena - gypsy, mother of Renzo
- Germán Rojas .... Jonás - gypsy, father of Renzo
- Natalia Bedoya .... Laisha - gypsy, wife of Miguel
- Orlando Valenzuela .... Miguel - gypsy
- Luigi Ayacardi .... Tobias del Valle y Campos - dandy, marries Catalina
- Marilyn Patiño .... Catalina - Tobias del Valle y Campos wife, ex-girlfriend of Diego, friend of Mariángel
- Ivelyn Giró .... María Luísa Burgos de Castilla - Queen of Spain
- Teresa Gutiérrez .... La Marquesa Carmen Santillana de la Roquette - the Marquessa
- Didier Van Der Hove .... Santiago Michelena - friend of Diego, ex-lover of Mariángel
- El Francés .... Toronado - Zorro's horse
[edit] Theme Song
- See also Amor Gitano
Beyoncé and Alejandro Fernández performed Amor Gitano (Gypsy Love), a flamenco-pop track commissioned by Sony for the series. According to the label's translation, Fernández sings, "I'm your gypsy, your pilgrim. I'm your thief, I'm going to love you even if they tear my heart out." [12] Since Beyoncé does not speak Spanish, she sang the lyrics phonetically. The single hit number one on Spain's singles chart.
[edit] International airings
Zorro averaged 635,000 core viewers during March, 2007 on Telemundo. The audience jumped 28 percent from February in the network's key demographic, Hispanic adults from age 18 to 49. [13] Overall, the show has had Nielsen ratings of around 0.6, with a 1 share. The network considered expanding the serial's run, [14] but decided against it.
Zorro has been sold to broadcasters in 96 countries. [15] Telemundo and Sony split the international rights, with Sony holding the rights for Latin America. [16] On February 26, 2007, the show started airing in Colombia on Caracol TV. [17]
In Romania, Zorro debuted on Acasa TV on March 5, 2007. The pilot episode aired with hard English subtitles in the USA on Universal HD. It premiered in Argentina on March 26, 2007, on Telefé.
In the Philippines Zorro will debut on ABS-CBN, on September 10, 2007-February 21, 2008, Weekday afternoons at 3 after Wowowee.
In Puerto Rico, the telenovela officially started airing on Telemundo on October 2, 2007 and in Finland on January 10, 2008, Nelonen
[edit] Supporting Characters
- Aaron, the exorcist
- Agapito, the undertaker
- Aguirre, the soldier
- Alejandro, Elena and Fernanda, children
- Alfonso, the suitor
- Camba, the slave
- Catalina, Diego's ex-girlfriend
- Don Enrique de Castilla y Leon
- Fulgencio, the soldier
- Hermes, the prisoner
- Jacobo Almagro de Castilla, Duke of Albatroz
- Javier, the gypsy
- Juan, the guard of horses
- Judge Quintana
- Leroy, the soldier
- Macario, the soldier
- Maestro Abelardo Samaniego de Villarte
- Mejias, the soldier
- Miguel, the gypsy
- la mujer de la rosa (the lady of the rose)
- Selena, the witch
- The Kala-Kala, a tribe of cannibals
- White Buffalo, the grandmother of Diego
[edit] See also
- Zorro
- Character profiles from the 1950s Zorro series.
[edit] External links
- Telemundo International Zorro page (English, requires Flash)
- La espada y la rosa Zorro page with summaries (English)
- Telenovela World (bilingual)
[edit] Spanish
- Telemundo main Zorro page (Spanish)
- Canal Caracol Zorro page (Spanish)
- Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa at the Internet Movie Database
|
|||||
