Marco Antonio Solis Transcends the Schmaltz

A long-haired singer dressed entirely in white holds a white guitar. Scantily clad cancan girls shake as if in a Playboy video. An orchestra adds syrupy cushions of strings to the love songs. And the singer, hand in hand with his wife, belts out a tune titled “The Ideal Couple.”

Sound like a bad Vegas show?

Well, it certainly looked like one at times. And yet Marco Antonio Solis’ sold-out show Saturday at the Universal Amphitheatre managed the remarkable (make that miraculous) feat of overcoming the schmaltz and delivering moments of true beauty.

The prolific Solis, formerly with group Los Bukis and now embarked on a hugely successful solo career, is second only to Juan Gabriel among Mexican composers in his ability to come up with an endless supply of catchy pop hooks.

Anybody with a weakness for sweet, hummable love songs will probably succumb to Solis’ no-nonsense melodic sensibility, his gentle voice and portentous orchestrations. On Saturday, these elements were particularly apparent in the songs from Solis’ last two albums, “Trozos de mi Alma” and “Mas de mi Alma.”

Lyrically, the singer often engages in the philosophizing that follows the breakup of a love affair. Solis knows how to wallow in self-pity and bitter self-examination, but his show, with its moments of banda sinaloense, timbale solos by the singer himself and even the introduction of his mother on the occasion of her birthday, was more of a festive affair than a meeting of the broken-hearts club.