An eclectic mix of musical performances kicks off the Napa Valley Opera House October calendar with appearances by standards singer Steve Tyrell on Thursday, country/bluegrass great Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder on Saturday and up-and-coming opera singers from the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows Sunday.

Standard bearer

With his on-screen performance of “The Way You Look Tonight” in the film “Father of the Bride,” movie music pioneer and record producer Steve Tyrell launched a successful singing career. He has since released five albums saluting the  Great American Songbook, with all five becoming Billboard jazz charters, including his 2005 “Songs Of Sinatra” set. During his Napa Valley Opera House premiere Thursday at 8 p.m., Tyrell will present an evening of standards.

Bluegrass ambassador

This year marks Ricky Skaggs’ 35th year as a professional musician, and this 11-time Grammy Award winner continues to do his part to lead the recent roots revival in music. Bluegrass music’s official ambassador, Skaggs has brought the genre to greater levels of popularity in the past few years than the father of bluegrass music — the legendary Bill Monroe — could ever have imagined. Skaggs will perform with his band Kentucky Thunder, Saturday.

“This group of guys meets my approval every night,” Skaggs said of his band. “Each and every one of the pickers in Kentucky Thunder totally amazes me in every show.”

The all-star lineup of Kentucky Thunder includes Andy Leftwich (fiddle), Paul Brewster (tenor vocals, rhythm guitar), Mark Fain (bass), Jim Mills (banjo), Cody Kilby (lead guitar) and Darrin Vincent (baritone vocals, rhythm guitar).

Opera from the Adler Fellows

The best of the best singers from San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellows program perform at the opera house, Sunday at 2 p.m. According to Company Director Chris Bragg, the Opera selects just a handful of singers each year from the winners of the worldwide Merola opera contest.

“We really look at the stars of tomorrow,” Bragg said, explaining that the program grooms singers for “Met debuts and the biggest world stages” as well as triumphant returns to the San Francisco Opera.  The Adler Fellows afternoon performance will include works by Mozart, Bizet, Puccini, Verdi and Barber.

A taste of country

 A distinctive singer and interpreter, Jimmie Dale Gilmore performs Tuesday 8 p.m. During his performance Gilmore will be joined on guitar by Robert Gjersoe.

More than three decades ago, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, along with Butch Hancock and Joe Ely founded the Flatlanders. The West Texas band’s only recording in 1973 has since been recognized as a landmark in progressive, alternative country music. Gilmore went on to receive Country Artist of the Year accolades from Rolling Stone two years in a row, as well as a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Artist.

During his Opera House performance Gilmore will perform songs from his latest album “Come On Back,” a memorial to his father and musical hero, Brian Gilmore, who died in 2000 of Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Gilmore explains in the liner notes that the recording “consists of songs that [my father] particularly loved, from an era of music that seems on the verge of being totally forgotten. They are simple, well-crafted, unpretentious little gems from a wonderfully creative period in American commercial music. My father passed his love of these songs on to me, and although I went on to embrace many other styles and influences, I never lost my deep feeling for the music that I associate with him.“

For tickets and information, contact the Napa Valley Opera House at 226-7372 or go online to www.NVOH.ORG