The Napa Valley Opera House has scored a coup in booking cutting-edge, controversial singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright for his only Bay Area appearance this year — a solo show scheduled on Sunday, March 9.

Touring in support of two successful 2007 recordings, “Release the Stars” and “Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall” — in which he performs all the songs performed by Judy Garland on a landmark early ’60s record — Wainwright is stopping off in the wine country as part of a brief West Coast tour sandwiched between extensive tours of Australia and Scandinavia.

Inspired by cabaret, Broadway musicals, opera and a desire to purge personal demons, Wainwright writes ornate, over-the-top songs delivered in an emotional, readily identifiable voice. His songs are as much emotional experience as they are chamber pop mini-dramas, or, often, excoriations of the body politic.

The son of folk music parents Loudon Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle, Rufus was raised by his mother in Montreal. He began studying piano at age 6 and by age 13 was touring with his musical family, during which time he was nominated for many emerging artist awards. Wainwright came out as a homosexual while still in his teens. He attended the prestigious Millbrook School in upstate New York and he briefly studied music at Montreal’s McGill University.

After becoming a fixture on the Montreal club circuit, Wainwright was soon signed with DreamWorks. The label released “Rufus Wainwright” during the spring of 1998 and the album landed on several critics’ Best of 1998 lists. His sophomore album, “Poses,” brought similar acclaim in mid-2001. After spending much of 2001 and 2002 touring on his own and with other bands, he settled in Woodstock, N.Y., to record again. The first project, “Want One,” was released in 2003, with “Want Two” following in 2004.

Wainwright’s gifts as a songwriter and vocalist have come into even greater focus in his direct and personal fifth recording, “Release the Stars,” where the emotional and melodic essence of each song transports the audience into the 34-year-old artist’s world.

In discussing the title track of the Berlin-recorded compact disc, Wainwright revealed that the message of the song became more inspirational in tone and serves as a theme for the recording.

Acknowledging that the genesis of the song was rooted in displeasure with a friend, Wainwright said: “It’s written about the idea that it’s time for both me and her — and, let’s say, for all people in their 30s, our generation — to let everything go and to love as much as possible and really be the best that you can be as a person. Now that we’re in our prime, having scaled the wall of adolescence, ridden on the train of our 20s, and been around, once you hit your 30s, the die is cast. It’s about action at this point; you have to fulfill your destiny or muddle into uselessness. That’s the essential message of the song and it is the message of the record. Now is the time to act on your desires and your dreams, to use your good side. Let’s get on with it.”

Tickets for the 7 p.m. March 9 Opera House show are $55. They can be ordered by calling the box office at 226-7372 or logging online at www.nvoh.org.