Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa

Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa
Format	Adventure, telenovela
Developed by	Telemundo RTI Colombia Sony Pictures Television International Zorro Producciones
Starring	Christian Meier Marlene Favela Arturo Peniche
Opening theme	"Amor Gitano" Alejandro Fernández and Beyoncé
Country of origin	Colombia United States
Language(s)	Spanish
No. of episodes	122 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Patricio Wills Hugo León Ferrer
Location(s)	Bogotá, Villa de Leyva and Cartagena, Colombia
Running time	42-45 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Telemundo
Picture format	HDTV, 1080i
Original run	February 12, 2007 – July 23, 2007
Chronology
Preceded by	Amores de mercado
Followed by	Victoria
Related shows	Zorro (TV series)
External links
Website

Distinctive Z

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. This series was filmed in 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]

This telenovela was sold to 29 countries around the world.

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.

Diego learned his acrobatics and fencing skills in Spain, 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.

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."

Cast

Main cast

Christian Meier as Zorro

Actor	Character	Known as
Christian Meier	Diego de la Vega \ Zorro	main hero
Marlene Favela	Esmeralda Sánchez de Moncada	main heroine
Arturo Peniche	Fernando Sánchez de Moncada	governor, father of Esmeralda and Mariángel, in love with Maria Pia (Accidentally killed by Mariangel)
Osvaldo Ríos	Don Alejandro de la Vega	father of Diego, in love with Almudena
Erick Elías	Renzo	gypsy, in love with Esmeralda
Héctor Suárez Gomís	Capitán Anibal Pizarro	accomplice of Montero, villain
Andrea López	Mariángel Sánchez de Moncada	not capable of love, second most evil villain, in love with Diego (Dies together with Olmos)
Harry Geithner	Comandante Ricardo Montero de Avila	enemy of "El Zorro", most evil villain, in love with Esmeralda (Killed by Zorro)
Jorge Cao	Padre Tomás Villarte	priest, mentor of Zorro
Natasha Klauss	Sor Ana Camila Suplicios	troubled nun
César Mora	Sargento Demetrio López García	sergeant
Lully Bosa	Almudena Sánchez de Moncada	sister of Fernando, aunt of Esmeralda and Mariángel
Raúl Gutierrez	Olmos Berroterran de la Guardia	hunchback, villain, in love with Mariangel (Dies with Mariangel at the end)
Andrea Montenegro	María Pía de la Vega	sister of Alejandro, former love of Fernando
Ricardo González	Bernardo	mute, assistant of Diego
Luigi Ayacardi	Tobias del Valle y Campos	dandy, marries Catalina
Germán Rojas	Jonás	gypsy, father of Renzo
Ana Bolena Meza	Sara Kali/Mercedes Mayorga de Aragon	mother of Esmeralda
Adriana Campos	Yumalay/Guadalupe and Toypurnia/Regina	Indian, in love with Alejandro
Margarita Giraldo	Azucena	gypsy, mother of Renzo
Marilyn Patiño	Catalina	Tobias del Valle y Campos wife, ex-girlfriend of Diego, friend of Mariángel
Natalia Bedoya	Laisha	gypsy, wife of Miguel
Carmen Marina Torres	Dolores	slave, nanny of Diego

Supporting cast

• Talu Quintero
• Jose Saldarriaga
• Fernando Corridor
• Alberto Saavedra
• Orlando Valenzuela .... Miguel - gypsy
• David Noreña
• Alejandro Tamayo
• Catalina Vela
• Alejandra Guzmán
• Lina Angarita
• Adriana Martin
• Nicolas Niño
• Anderson Barbosa
• Jesus David Forero
• Mauricio Bravo
• Jaime Rayo
• Julian Alvarez
• Gabriel Gonzalez
• 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
• Valentina Acosta .... Selenia

Episodes

Main article: List of Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa episodes

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.

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.

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.

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 43 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

In Bulgaria, the telenovela officially started airing on April 15, 2008 on BTV

In Serbia, the telenovela officially started airing on June 23, 2008 on RTV Pink.

In Hungary: August 25, 2008

In Poland since September 1, 2008 on TV Puls

In People's Republic of China:since October 31, 2008 on CCTV-8

In Slovenia will start on November 3, 2010 on POP TV

In Spain the telenovela aired on Antena 3TV weekdays at 16hrs from Monday 27 April 2007 where it achieved moderate success in the tough "second Primetime" afternoon slot.

Supporting Characters

• Aaron, the exorcist
• Agapito, the barber/surgeon/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)
• Selenia, the witch
• The Kala-Kala, a tribe of cannibals
• White Buffalo, the grandmother of Diego

See also

• Zorro
• Character profiles from the 1950s Zorro series.

External links

• Telemundo International Zorro page (English, requires Flash)
• La espada y la rosa Zorro page with summaries (English)
• Telenovela World (bilingual)
• Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa at the Internet Movie Database

Spanish

• Telemundo main Zorro page (Spanish)
• Canal Caracol Zorro page (Spanish)
• Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa at the Internet Movie Database