Post by jezebel on Jul 14, 2024 19:47:03 GMT
Milagro y Magia was a soap opera (or Telenovela in Latinoamerica) produced, directed and starred by Florinda Meza in 1991. It was set between 1910 and 1985, making it a period soap opera.
The soap opera began on April 29, 1991 and ended on August 30 of the same year, at 7 pm, with a total of 90 episodes in "Canal de Las Estrellas".
Plot (Wikipedia):
After the Mexican Revolution, two orphans, Elisa and Pepe, leave the province for the capital. They try to survive.
During the trip they meet an older boy, Adrian, who takes them to his house. Here lives Macaria, an old witch who collects and exploits children, to send them to steal. After some years, Adrian tries to rape Elisa and Pepe to save her, he injures Adrian, then the two escape to Mexico City. Then they have to separate. Wandering the streets, Elisa meets Roberto, an acrobat, and his dog. He helps her. With them also: Don Roque and Doña Rufina, two cleaning employees who treat Elisa like a daughter. Roberto and Elisa love each other, but he is afraid because he is 20 years older than her. On their wanderings they meet Pepe and go to work in a small circus. By mistake, Roberto believes that he is Elisa's father, then they lose sight of each other, but Elisa will search for him for many years.
She then meets Carlos Andrade, a theatre critic who falls in love with her. He offers her a job in radio and television. Elisa becomes a film star and meets a tycoon: George Higgins, separated from his wife. She goes to live with him and becomes pregnant. During a trip to New York, George dies in a plane crash and Elisa remains the only heiress, a little later she gives birth to a girl, named Fabiola. Elisa refuses to marry Carlos because she thinks of Roberto.
But later, Elisa marries Arturo, a swindler. This marriage is a failure. Finally, Elisa succeeds in finding Roberto, but he is dying in a hospital. Now Fabiola is the girlfriend of Hector, who is Roberto's son, and for Elisa the past is turning back.
After the Mexican Revolution, two orphans, Elisa and Pepe, leave the province for the capital. They try to survive.
During the trip they meet an older boy, Adrian, who takes them to his house. Here lives Macaria, an old witch who collects and exploits children, to send them to steal. After some years, Adrian tries to rape Elisa and Pepe to save her, he injures Adrian, then the two escape to Mexico City. Then they have to separate. Wandering the streets, Elisa meets Roberto, an acrobat, and his dog. He helps her. With them also: Don Roque and Doña Rufina, two cleaning employees who treat Elisa like a daughter. Roberto and Elisa love each other, but he is afraid because he is 20 years older than her. On their wanderings they meet Pepe and go to work in a small circus. By mistake, Roberto believes that he is Elisa's father, then they lose sight of each other, but Elisa will search for him for many years.
She then meets Carlos Andrade, a theatre critic who falls in love with her. He offers her a job in radio and television. Elisa becomes a film star and meets a tycoon: George Higgins, separated from his wife. She goes to live with him and becomes pregnant. During a trip to New York, George dies in a plane crash and Elisa remains the only heiress, a little later she gives birth to a girl, named Fabiola. Elisa refuses to marry Carlos because she thinks of Roberto.
But later, Elisa marries Arturo, a swindler. This marriage is a failure. Finally, Elisa succeeds in finding Roberto, but he is dying in a hospital. Now Fabiola is the girlfriend of Hector, who is Roberto's son, and for Elisa the past is turning back.
One of the most intriguing things is that even though it is from 1991, all of this media is lost and there is no known recording of it on YouTube. It's a shame, because the work was a success with the public and a tribute to the golden age of Mexican television.
Said a subject, not long ago, from the late FilmeWeb site about the soap opera Milagro y Magia, comments on what they found from a comedy actress to make drama and even direct a soap opera and the huge success. Here below is a report about the soap opera (Translated from Spanish).
In the early nineties, the announcement of the arrival of Florinda Meza, the famous interpreter of Doña Florinda and La Chimoltrufia from the series “Chespirito”, to telenovelas and, worst of all, according to what was said at the time, as the protagonist, caused a great surprise in the entertainment world.
This was considered by many as a daring and extreme offense to the genre that has kept Mexican commercial television alive for many years. And all this because it was “impossible”, according to journalists of the time, for a comedian to appear in dramatic evenings where the tears and emotions of housewives and soap opera lovers ruled.
However, the Zacatecan left more than one person speechless with the production with which she came to the soap operas, obviously, leaving behind a large cushion of recorded programs of the series produced by her partner, Roberto Gómez Bolaños “Chespirito”, who also got involved in that melodramatic project as a stage director.
In fact, another of the great daring acts that Doña Florinda had when joining the soap operas, was her “daring” to write the story, immediately having the attack of everyone and a null possibility of defending herself. All this because Gómez Bolaños is one of the most important writers, novelists, playwrights and scriptwriters of the national artistic environment.
However, Florinda Meza began to shut mouths from April 22 to December 20, 1991 when, after the successful “Cadenas de amargura” ended its broadcasts and Aunt Evangelina received her punishment, the following Monday, in the prime time of the afternoon soap operas, “Milagro y magia” began, having as leading couple Meza and Miguel Palmer, an actor who was already leaving behind his stage as a young heartthrob, and remembered by all thanks to his role in “Bodas de odio”, a period melodrama broadcast in 1983.
Also set in another time, set in Mexico City and other states of the country from 1910 to 1985, from the moment the opening credits began, “Milagro y magia” invited us to take a trip into the memory of a woman who, walking among armchairs, lamps and tables with picture frames with images of her past life, made it clear that It was about a star of the national show, a great success for Meza in bringing this work to the glass screen, trying to win the attention of grandmothers and fans of the musical genre. And boy did he succeed.
In its plot, after the Mexican Revolution, two orphans, Elisa and Pepe, leave the province for the capital trying to survive. During the trip they meet an older boy, Adrián, who takes them to his house, where Macaria lives, an old woman who collects and exploits children to send them to steal.
After a few years, Adrian tries to rape Elisa (an unusual event in the soap operas of the time, all pink and cheesy9 and Pepe, to save her, injures Adrian. Then the two escape to Mexico City, but they have to separate. Wandering through the streets, Elisa meets Roberto, an acrobat who helps her. In the group are Don Roque and Doña Rufina, two cleaning employees who treat Elisa like a daughter.
In the midst of Elisa's initiation into the artistic world, due to her histrionic qualities and good voice, having the tents as a stage, Roberto and Elisa love each other, but he is afraid because he is 20 years older than her and because he believes that he is the girl's father. At a certain moment, they separate and Elisa will search for them for many years.
All this dramatic search was seasoned with the realization of several musical numbers, from the tent to television, passing through radio, cinema and theater. magazine, this is because Elisa meets a man who encourages her to work in the artistic world, becoming a star. In fact, the musical numbers were one of the great attractions of “Milagro y magia”, leading to the release of several LPs (yes, at that time they still existed) of the series, a success in the genre since there were few, very few, soap operas that released long-playing records with their songs.
Furthermore, before “Milagro y magia”, the most remembered record of this type was “Toda una vida”, a series by Luis Reyes de la Maza, and produced by Miguel Alemán Velasco, which was broadcast every Sunday at 11 pm, with the performances of Ofelia Medina and Conrado San Martín, among others, which was an adaptation of the life of María Conesa, also counting on the support of Enrique Alonso “Cachirulo” in the musicalization.
“Milagro y magia” was a great start in Florinda Meza’s role as a producer of soap operas. In addition, she also excelled singing and dancing the songs that were included in the story, another little-known facet, which she had made her first steps in years before, the same in the “Chespirito” films, such as “El Chanfle” (where she sang the song “Nacer”), as well as in an OTI Festival, and in the musical comedy “Títere”, produced in 1985 in the defunct Televiteatros, this being a free version of Gómez Bolaños’ “Pinocchio”, in which she was the Fairy Godmother of the character played by Rodolfo Rodríguez.
In addition to Florinda Meza and Miguel Palmer, the cast of “Milagro…” included leading actors and figures from music and musical theater, some of them with little or no experience in soap operas, but supported by relevant figures from the same, also called by Florinda and Roberto Gómez, all of them trusting in this first experiment of the couple.
Among them, we can mention the names of Ofelia Guilmáin, Tony Carbajal, Carlos Bracho, Rafael Sánchez Navarro, Juan Antonio Edwards (later a member of the play “11 y 12”, also of “Chespirito”), Paulina Gómez, Lucía Guilmáin, Miguel Pizarro, Miguel Ángel Infante, Alberto Ángel "El Cuervo" (who later was the interpreter of the theme of “Alguien vez Tenemos Alas”, another melodramatic production by Meza), Lizzeta Romo, Lili Inclán, Eugenia Avendaño, Inés Morales, Roberto Cañedo, Laura Luz, Moisés Suárez, Leticia Montaño, Raquel Morell, and Susana Zabaleta, among others.
“Miracle and Magic” had a superb and first-class production. Time, costumes, and setting were respected, recording in legendary places such as the XEW studios Azul y Plata and Verde y Oro, theatrical sets, exterior and interior locations, and much more were recreated. Classic cars, film cameras, and old-fashioned microphones appeared…
The musical numbers in the story gave rise to a couple of special programs once the broadcasts concluded, and the good acceptance of the project was also the spearhead for Emilio “El Tigre” Azcárraga to authorize Florinda Meza to continue exploring the production of soap operas, continuing with titles such as “La dueña” (1995), (rehash of “Domenika Montero” 1978), directed by Roberto Gómez Fernández, which was also another success for Florinda.
Today, a remake of Meza's version is broadcast under the title "Soy tu dueña" (I am your dueña), with Lucero and Fernando Colunga in the leading roles, playing characters older than those played in 1995 by Angélica Rivera and Francisco Gattorno.
Florinda Meza's career as a soap opera producer ended, or was paused - one never knows - in 1997 with "Alguien vez Tenemos Alas" (Sometimes We Will Have Wings), the last production by Humberto Zurita on Televisa, with Kate del Castillo as a young lady, Alberto Estrella and Cynthia Klitbo in the cast, repeating this last participation with La Chimoltrufia, after the paranoid villain she brought to life in "La dueña", today reinterpreted by Gabriela Spanic.
Legend has it that there was another project for Florinda Meza as a producer, "La Bastarda", with Itatí Cantoral and Silvia Pinal as protagonists. But after Azcárraga Milmo's death, the plan was stopped, cutting short one of the most successful careers in the production of soap operas at Televisa, carried out by a woman, after Carla Estrada's arrival at the same company.
Another enigma that we who were followers of “Milagro y magia” have is why this production has not been broadcast on open television, nor on pay TV through the Telenovelas channel of Cablevisión. What's more, it was not released in DVD format, which we consider a serious error. But hey, we're not going to produce either, right?
If any of our readers have the complete CDs of “Milagro y magia”, I would be very grateful if you could get in touch so I could have a copy, hehe. Or if Florinda Meza or Marcela Gómez Fernández, from “Fundación Chespirito IAP” could send them to me, really, you don't know how grateful I would be.
Finally, I must comment on a legendary event that occurred at that time, to a 17-year-old teenager who already wanted to enter the world of journalism. I was a fan of “Milagro y magia.” I had one of the LP records and I talked to my paternal grandmother about the story, which she also watched.
One afternoon of leisure, I had the “idea” of writing a letter to Florinda Meza, congratulating her on the production and on everything that had made “Milagro…” a success. I sent it to Televisa San Ángel and that was it. According to me, I had fulfilled my mission as a grateful viewer. Weeks later, while I was at home, the phone rang. I answered and they asked for me, which was strange at that time, since, I repeat, I was not yet working and had few friends.
When I said that it was me who was speaking, the voice on the other line identified herself as Florinda Meza! She was calling to thank me for the letter I had sent, which I couldn't believe... it was truly incredible and motivating, quite a bit, for the person writing this. After talking for a while, almost five minutes or a little more, I never had direct contact with her again, but I really confess that her call was gratifying and motivating to keep going.
It's not a beard, far from it, but I thank Florinda Meza for her attention because, I repeat, at that time I was younger than I am now, and the lady had the delicacy to approach someone from her audience who was moved by her work. 19 years later, thank you again.
This was considered by many as a daring and extreme offense to the genre that has kept Mexican commercial television alive for many years. And all this because it was “impossible”, according to journalists of the time, for a comedian to appear in dramatic evenings where the tears and emotions of housewives and soap opera lovers ruled.
However, the Zacatecan left more than one person speechless with the production with which she came to the soap operas, obviously, leaving behind a large cushion of recorded programs of the series produced by her partner, Roberto Gómez Bolaños “Chespirito”, who also got involved in that melodramatic project as a stage director.
In fact, another of the great daring acts that Doña Florinda had when joining the soap operas, was her “daring” to write the story, immediately having the attack of everyone and a null possibility of defending herself. All this because Gómez Bolaños is one of the most important writers, novelists, playwrights and scriptwriters of the national artistic environment.
However, Florinda Meza began to shut mouths from April 22 to December 20, 1991 when, after the successful “Cadenas de amargura” ended its broadcasts and Aunt Evangelina received her punishment, the following Monday, in the prime time of the afternoon soap operas, “Milagro y magia” began, having as leading couple Meza and Miguel Palmer, an actor who was already leaving behind his stage as a young heartthrob, and remembered by all thanks to his role in “Bodas de odio”, a period melodrama broadcast in 1983.
Also set in another time, set in Mexico City and other states of the country from 1910 to 1985, from the moment the opening credits began, “Milagro y magia” invited us to take a trip into the memory of a woman who, walking among armchairs, lamps and tables with picture frames with images of her past life, made it clear that It was about a star of the national show, a great success for Meza in bringing this work to the glass screen, trying to win the attention of grandmothers and fans of the musical genre. And boy did he succeed.
In its plot, after the Mexican Revolution, two orphans, Elisa and Pepe, leave the province for the capital trying to survive. During the trip they meet an older boy, Adrián, who takes them to his house, where Macaria lives, an old woman who collects and exploits children to send them to steal.
After a few years, Adrian tries to rape Elisa (an unusual event in the soap operas of the time, all pink and cheesy9 and Pepe, to save her, injures Adrian. Then the two escape to Mexico City, but they have to separate. Wandering through the streets, Elisa meets Roberto, an acrobat who helps her. In the group are Don Roque and Doña Rufina, two cleaning employees who treat Elisa like a daughter.
In the midst of Elisa's initiation into the artistic world, due to her histrionic qualities and good voice, having the tents as a stage, Roberto and Elisa love each other, but he is afraid because he is 20 years older than her and because he believes that he is the girl's father. At a certain moment, they separate and Elisa will search for them for many years.
All this dramatic search was seasoned with the realization of several musical numbers, from the tent to television, passing through radio, cinema and theater. magazine, this is because Elisa meets a man who encourages her to work in the artistic world, becoming a star. In fact, the musical numbers were one of the great attractions of “Milagro y magia”, leading to the release of several LPs (yes, at that time they still existed) of the series, a success in the genre since there were few, very few, soap operas that released long-playing records with their songs.
Furthermore, before “Milagro y magia”, the most remembered record of this type was “Toda una vida”, a series by Luis Reyes de la Maza, and produced by Miguel Alemán Velasco, which was broadcast every Sunday at 11 pm, with the performances of Ofelia Medina and Conrado San Martín, among others, which was an adaptation of the life of María Conesa, also counting on the support of Enrique Alonso “Cachirulo” in the musicalization.
“Milagro y magia” was a great start in Florinda Meza’s role as a producer of soap operas. In addition, she also excelled singing and dancing the songs that were included in the story, another little-known facet, which she had made her first steps in years before, the same in the “Chespirito” films, such as “El Chanfle” (where she sang the song “Nacer”), as well as in an OTI Festival, and in the musical comedy “Títere”, produced in 1985 in the defunct Televiteatros, this being a free version of Gómez Bolaños’ “Pinocchio”, in which she was the Fairy Godmother of the character played by Rodolfo Rodríguez.
In addition to Florinda Meza and Miguel Palmer, the cast of “Milagro…” included leading actors and figures from music and musical theater, some of them with little or no experience in soap operas, but supported by relevant figures from the same, also called by Florinda and Roberto Gómez, all of them trusting in this first experiment of the couple.
Among them, we can mention the names of Ofelia Guilmáin, Tony Carbajal, Carlos Bracho, Rafael Sánchez Navarro, Juan Antonio Edwards (later a member of the play “11 y 12”, also of “Chespirito”), Paulina Gómez, Lucía Guilmáin, Miguel Pizarro, Miguel Ángel Infante, Alberto Ángel "El Cuervo" (who later was the interpreter of the theme of “Alguien vez Tenemos Alas”, another melodramatic production by Meza), Lizzeta Romo, Lili Inclán, Eugenia Avendaño, Inés Morales, Roberto Cañedo, Laura Luz, Moisés Suárez, Leticia Montaño, Raquel Morell, and Susana Zabaleta, among others.
“Miracle and Magic” had a superb and first-class production. Time, costumes, and setting were respected, recording in legendary places such as the XEW studios Azul y Plata and Verde y Oro, theatrical sets, exterior and interior locations, and much more were recreated. Classic cars, film cameras, and old-fashioned microphones appeared…
The musical numbers in the story gave rise to a couple of special programs once the broadcasts concluded, and the good acceptance of the project was also the spearhead for Emilio “El Tigre” Azcárraga to authorize Florinda Meza to continue exploring the production of soap operas, continuing with titles such as “La dueña” (1995), (rehash of “Domenika Montero” 1978), directed by Roberto Gómez Fernández, which was also another success for Florinda.
Today, a remake of Meza's version is broadcast under the title "Soy tu dueña" (I am your dueña), with Lucero and Fernando Colunga in the leading roles, playing characters older than those played in 1995 by Angélica Rivera and Francisco Gattorno.
Florinda Meza's career as a soap opera producer ended, or was paused - one never knows - in 1997 with "Alguien vez Tenemos Alas" (Sometimes We Will Have Wings), the last production by Humberto Zurita on Televisa, with Kate del Castillo as a young lady, Alberto Estrella and Cynthia Klitbo in the cast, repeating this last participation with La Chimoltrufia, after the paranoid villain she brought to life in "La dueña", today reinterpreted by Gabriela Spanic.
Legend has it that there was another project for Florinda Meza as a producer, "La Bastarda", with Itatí Cantoral and Silvia Pinal as protagonists. But after Azcárraga Milmo's death, the plan was stopped, cutting short one of the most successful careers in the production of soap operas at Televisa, carried out by a woman, after Carla Estrada's arrival at the same company.
Another enigma that we who were followers of “Milagro y magia” have is why this production has not been broadcast on open television, nor on pay TV through the Telenovelas channel of Cablevisión. What's more, it was not released in DVD format, which we consider a serious error. But hey, we're not going to produce either, right?
If any of our readers have the complete CDs of “Milagro y magia”, I would be very grateful if you could get in touch so I could have a copy, hehe. Or if Florinda Meza or Marcela Gómez Fernández, from “Fundación Chespirito IAP” could send them to me, really, you don't know how grateful I would be.
Finally, I must comment on a legendary event that occurred at that time, to a 17-year-old teenager who already wanted to enter the world of journalism. I was a fan of “Milagro y magia.” I had one of the LP records and I talked to my paternal grandmother about the story, which she also watched.
One afternoon of leisure, I had the “idea” of writing a letter to Florinda Meza, congratulating her on the production and on everything that had made “Milagro…” a success. I sent it to Televisa San Ángel and that was it. According to me, I had fulfilled my mission as a grateful viewer. Weeks later, while I was at home, the phone rang. I answered and they asked for me, which was strange at that time, since, I repeat, I was not yet working and had few friends.
When I said that it was me who was speaking, the voice on the other line identified herself as Florinda Meza! She was calling to thank me for the letter I had sent, which I couldn't believe... it was truly incredible and motivating, quite a bit, for the person writing this. After talking for a while, almost five minutes or a little more, I never had direct contact with her again, but I really confess that her call was gratifying and motivating to keep going.
It's not a beard, far from it, but I thank Florinda Meza for her attention because, I repeat, at that time I was younger than I am now, and the lady had the delicacy to approach someone from her audience who was moved by her work. 19 years later, thank you again.
According to what was found out, "Milagro y Magia" was never shown on the telenovelas channel (a Televisa channel that reruns old soap operas). Today, only the other two Florinda productions are shown: "La dueña" and "Alguna vez tendremos alas". In 2011, "Cadenas de amargura" was rerun, the soap opera that came just before Milagro y magia, in 1991, and was soon followed by "La pícara soñadora", which creates a greater mystery as to why the work was skipped from the airings.
Florinda Meza claims that Televisa lost the tapes. The work was recorded on 2.5-inch tapes and unfortunately they deteriorated. Of the 90 hours, she managed to recover 65 hours and promised to make a compact, but 9 years have passed and no compact has been released.
Unfortunately, of what we have, there are only excerpts from Programa do Ratinho and an episode of Chespirito called "Chimoltrufia e a Atriz de TV" (Chimoltrufia and the TV Actress).
One thing that leaves me uncomfortable is that a relatively recent soap opera, from 1991, does not have a single decent or complete recording, and if it depends on Televisa or Florinda herself, we will never have anything from the soap opera other than excerpts.
