Hopkins Center for the Arts

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Rick Benjamin's Paragon Orchestra

The Mark of Zorro

Saturday, August 2 • 8 pm
Spaulding Auditorium
$15 • Dartmouth students $5
18 & under $12

Return to an era when the soundtrack of life had to skip a beat just to keep up with the explosive pulse of progress. Donning vintage garb, Paragon does just that in syncopated rhythmic glory as it accompanies the world's first action-adventure movie, The Mark of Zorro (1920), with its original Spanish-flavored musical score written and timed to the action. This feature-length swashbuckling classic starring Douglas Fairbanks—the prototype of such blockbuster heroes as Jackie Chan and Bruce Willis—unfolds at a frenetic pace to deliver a family-friendly blend of romance, intrigue, comedy, mayhem and spectacular stunts. And that's only half of it. With punch and pizzazz on period instruments, the historically informed 13-member orchestra conjures up the electrifying atmosphere of vaudeville movie palaces at the peak of silent film in the early 1900s. As the only touring orchestra accompanying films with their original scores, Paragon Orchestra showcases Señor Zorro slashing his signature “Z” exactly as he did for audiences upon the film's original release—to the live tune of bangs and crashes, rim shots and bass drum booms.

Cosponsored by Hopkins Center Film.