The musical world of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart comes alive this weekend at the Napa Valley Opera House, with three family concerts and a free display of historical artifacts believed to be connected with the Mozart family.

The three-day Mozart bash, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth, kicks off Friday evening with the internationally recognized troupe Dance Through Time.

Lavishly costumed dancers and musicians playing period instruments will bring the audience into the elegant world of a Baroque salon, with minuets, allemandes and other courtly steps Mozart himself would have danced in his day.

Along with music by Purcell, Telemann, Vivaldi and other period composers, the concert will include a portion of Mozart’s only ballet, “Les Petits Riens.”

After the performance, ticketholders can mingle with the dancers while enjoying Viennese pastries, coffees and teas in the Opera House Cafe Theatre.

A touching father-son journey

The festival continues Saturday evening with the first-ever Northern California performance of “Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage,” from the award-winning Classical Kids.

The concert fancifully recreates a touching historical event, in which Mozart brought his young son Karl to a performance of his “Magic Flute”opera just two months before the composer’s death at age 35.

Father and son share stories on stage as the 22-piece Golden Gate Orchestra performs many of Mozart’s best-loved works, centering on the “Magic Flute,” which Classical Kids Director Sue Hammond calls “the greatest fairy tale ever told.”

Hammond has made a career of bringing classical music to young audiences through her best-selling series of CDs — beginning with “Beethoven Lives Upstairs” — and sold-out live performances geared to families.

“You’re bringing your children to the excitement of the concert hall,” she said, “but they’re also seeing period drama in front of the orchestra. So it’s not just letters across the stage.”

For Hammond, making the classics kid-friendly takes costumes, lighting and “a lot of playful back-and-forth.” In “Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage,” composer and son make full use of a magic “traveling case on wheels — the oldest theatrical trick in the book,” she laughed.

After the Opera House performance, Hammond said she and the actors will take questions from the audience.

“Sometimes the question-and-answer period lasts as long as the show,” she said.

Kids and parents who want a more hands-on musical experience can linger in the Opera House Cafe Theatre, where they can try out instruments including trumpet, violin, cello, flute and clarinet from 6 to 7 p.m. and again after the show. The instrumental “petting zoo” is sponsored by R Pals Music of Napa.

A modern-day prodigy plays Mozart

Just 13 years old, pianist and composer Peng Peng has already written 18 works for piano, eight chamber pieces and two works for orchestras, and received a string of awards.

On Sunday afternoon at the Opera House, Peng will perform works by Mozart and other composers of his era.

Born in China, Peng began taking piano lessons at age 5 and began playing in public when he was 8. He studies piano and composition at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City, where he made his American debut at Lincoln Center in 2005 with Itzhak Perlman conducting.

Penn’s “Exit, Stage Left!‚ for Orchestra” won last year’s Juilliard Pre-College Division Composition Competition; in 2004, Peng won the school’s Pre-College Mozart Concerto Competition.

Peng’s Opera House concert, Sunday at 2 p.m., is a rare chance for local audiences to hear a true prodigy who “has a very special power of communication along with a wonderful sound,” in the words of Juilliard president Joseph W. Polisi.

From Salzburg to Napa

Throughout the weekend, visitors to the Napa Valley Opera House — with and without tickets — will be able to view an unparalleled collection of portraits and memorabilia that may have belonged to Mozart and his family.

Friday evening through Sunday afternoon will mark the U.S. premiere of the exhibition “Mozart’s World: A Private Collection of Late 18th Century Art Objects.”

The portraits and other artifacts, drawn from international private collections, were first exhibited at the Mozarteum in Salzburg last December. They will be displayed at no charge Friday from 7 to 10 p.m., Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. and 6-10 p.m., and Sunday from 1-4 p.m.