Caroling the mariachi way

Singer Linda Ronstadt, bundled up in layers of clothing with a fuchsia rebozo wrapped around her neck, immediately apologized for her “annual Christmas cold” after taking the stage Wednesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center as headliner for “Fiesta Navidad.”

“So if you hear some very strange notes, don’t be surprised,” warned Ronstadt, who was about to tackle the daunting vocal challenges of the Mexican mariachi music she has embraced as part of her family heritage.

She must have taken her abuelita’s herbal cold remedy before coming out, or at least a Sudafed. For a singer with the sniffles who’s pushing 60, Ronstadt managed to clear her pipes and occasionally soar during her short set of tender ballads, rousing rancheras and wrist-slashing, tequila-doused torch songs. Her soulful falsettos lamenting lost love in “Crucifijo de Piedra” could, as the song says, bring tears to a stone crucifix.

This performance marked the singer’s return after a two-year absence to the Mexican Christmas program that is sponsored by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and is in its 11th year.

She was backed by a concert-quality mariachi ensemble led by 72-year-old Nati Cano, a Jalisco native who founded his Mariachi Los Camperos 45 years ago in Los Angeles.

The connection between the pop singer and the mariachi guitarist dates at least two decades, around the time of Ronstadt’s awakening to her Mexican cultural roots. She practiced her ranchera singing in a back room at La Fonda, the Wilshire Boulevard restaurant Cano opened in 1968, the year after Ronstadt made her U.S. record debut with the Stone Poneys.

Cano’s group later recorded with Ronstadt for her 1987 album “Canciones de Mi Padre,” a collection of Mexican standards the Tucson native learned from her father. The album, a surprise hit, helped elevate the profile of traditional Mexican music in the U.S.

Twice during Wednesday’s show, Cano made note of Ronstadt’s role in raising respect for the music, sometimes seen as corny or old-fashioned, even by the Americanized children of Mexican immigrants. “It was after Linda that we mariachis took center stage,” said Cano, the evening’s gracious and humorous bilingual host.

Cano’s musicians commanded every corner of the ample stage, taking turns with solo and group vocals in two- to four-part harmonies as well as dazzling solos on violin, trumpet and harp. He assembled a super-mariachi for the 2 1/2 -hour show, combining Los Camperos with the Mariachi Monumental de America, his second band at La Fonda, along with the dancers of Danza Teocalt.

Under the musical direction of violinist and singer Jesus “Chuy” Guzman, the group performed with symphonic dimension, without the symphonic pretensions of other concert-level mariachi groups.

The performance had enough class and passion to satisfy the rambunctious mariachi aficionados in the crowd and the genteel Philharmonic Society subscribers who come out in large numbers every year.

Although the program this time eliminated Las Posadas, the traditional Mexican Nativity pageant, there was no shortage of Christmas spirit with mariachi versions of traditional carols and, of course, a sing-along of Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad.”

But even without the seasonal songs, celebrating Mexican music and traditions somehow makes a holiday statement of its own. This is a cultural expression that, like Christmas itself, centers on tradition, ritual and family togetherness.

Thus, “Fiesta Navidad” finished with a seamless flourish as “Joy to the World” led into the “Jarabe Tapatio,” or the Mexican hat dance. The only thing missing was a Ronstadt encore, or at least a bow for the final curtain.

We can only hope she feels better next year.