Diva Durcal Makes Mentor’s Latin Songs Her Own

If Friday’s concert at the Universal Amphitheatre was any indication, Rocio Durcal has become the alter ego of Mexican singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel.

How else can you account for the Spanish diva’s complete identification with Gabriel’s material, and the pathos with which she translated the composer’s lyrics into raw emotions of the purest kind?

It was in 1977 that Gabriel, Mexico’s most prodigious pop composer, persuaded Durcal to record an album of his material with the backing of a mariachi orchestra.

Twenty-two years later, Durcal sang a bunch of her mentor’s classics, including “Costumbres” and “La Guirnalda,” with a bravado and focus that matched those of the originator’s own renditions.

Before the excellent Mariachi America stepped onstage for the traditional side of the program, Durcal opened the show with a good half-hour of catchy, if slightly old-fashioned, pop nuggets by other composers. Backed by an elegant-sounding, guitarless group that emphasized the sounds of the keyboards and the marimba, she breathed new life into the melancholy “Como Han Pasado Los Anos” and the syrupy “La Gata Bajo La Lluvia.”

Dressed in a chic, light blue dress that enhanced her commanding presence, Durcal saved the best for last. Her take on “Amor Eterno,” Gabriel’s somber love poem dedicated to his late mother, was memorable and cathartic, as grand as Latin pop can be.