The national touring company of one of America’s most highly-acclaimed operatic performance groups is on the road to the Napa Valley this week. Opera A La Carte will stage three performances of the crowd-pleasing Gilbert and Sullivan classic “The Mikado” Friday, Saturday and  Sunday at Lincoln Theater.

Opera A La Carte performed classics such as “HMS Pinafore” and “The Pirates of Penzance” at the Napa Valley Opera House shortly after it reopened. “We’re very thrilled to be returning to the Napa Valley,” said Richard Sheldon, founder of Opera A La Carte and director of “The Mikado.”

Citing one of his favorite lines from the work, Sheldon recited, “It’s an unjust world, and virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances.”

Sheldon said, “Of course I love all of the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, but ‘The Mikado’ is one of the great works, not just of Gilbert and Sullivan, but in the world of light opera and operettas.”

The work was written and performed in London in the 1880s, when people were greatly interested in the culture of Japan. According to Sheldon, around that time there was a Japanese exhibition in London and Gilbert, who wanted everything to be authentic, had Japanese women meet with and educate his cast.

This production of “The Mikado” is complete with sets, costumes, a full chorus and orchestra  Sheldon is cast in the title role (“a more humane Mikado”) for which he has been described as “unusually terrifying but quite hilarious.” Other characters include Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, Pooh-Bah, Lord High Everything Else, “wandering minstrel” Nanki-Poo and the “Three Little Maids from School,” Yum-Yum, Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo.

The Los Angeles Daily News wrote, “… the glory of Opera A La Carte has been its absolute adherence to the letter as well as the spirit of these works, not as museum fossils but in their authentic, joyous vitality.”

‘The Mikado’

Lincoln Theater

Friday, Feb. 8 at 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 10 at 3 p.m.

Tickets: $30, $40, $50 and $60

Box office 944-1300 or  www.lincolntheater.org.

Before the show

What could be more timely in this overwrought political season than a hilarious send-up of politicians? As a bonus for ticket holders, each performance will be preceded by a free talk one hour prior to show time with Dr. James Keolker, who will introduce the operetta, its satirical plot, numerous humorous characters, pun-filled text and lively musical score. Keolker is a professor of opera studies at the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco and locally known for his talks on music for audiences at the Napa Valley Opera House, the Napa Valley Symphony, the White Barn in St. Helena and Napa Valley College./Register