One of the leading voices in the world of Baroque opera today is the American mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux, who has championed the work of revered masters such as Antonio Vivaldi and nearly forgotten ones, such as Johann Hasse.

But Genaux got to Hasse through the operas of Giaochino Rossini, and particularly through the Italian master’s three comic masterpieces, The Barber of Seville, L’Italiana in Algeri, and La Cenerentola (Cinderella), the last-named of which she is starring in this week.

“It’s a great first opera, for kids and adults, and I love that about my job, that I have an opera that’s accessible, in which nobody dies and that has this immediacy for the public,” Genaux said last week as she talked in the lobby of her West Palm Beach hotel. “They’re rooting for you, they know they story. They know how it’s going to end, but it’s just different enough in the opera so that it’s not completely on autopilot.”

Genaux, an Alaska native and a former winner of the Palm Beach Opera’s Vocal Competition in the early 1990s, returns to the company tonight and this weekend for three performances as Angelina, the heroine of Cenerentola, which Palm Beach Opera is billing as Cinderella. The opera, which had its premiere in 1817, is the familiar story of a young girl working as a virtual slave for a grasping family run by her stepfather, a buffoonish man who schemes to get his shallow, selfish daughters married off to the local aristocrat. The prince has other ideas, and through an elaborate ruse involving his valet’s acting abilities, wins the heart of Angelina, who magnanimously pardons her stepfamily for their cruelties.

Palm Beach Opera’s cast production has several Italian participants, including Bruno Pratico as Don Magnifico, Bruno Taddia as Dandini, and stage director Mario Corradi. Genaux, who lives with her Italian husband Massimo in Motta di Livenza, near Venice, also speaks fluent Italian, and says rehearsals have been conducted in both languages, as they were when she first sang with the company two decades ago in a production of The Barber of Seville.

“It’s like the good old days, and I think that’s really neat. It’s a great experience for the young artists they have here to see that,” said Genaux, who is featured on four new recordings, including A Tribute to Faustina Bordoni, a disc of Handel and Hasse arias with Capella Gabetta honoring the 18th-century mezzo-soprano and Handel heroine who married Hasse, and Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra, an opera by Hasse.

The two stepsisters, Clorinda and Tisbe, will be sung by two members of the Young Artists troupe, Alexandra Batsios and Shirin Eskandani. Prince Ramiro will be sung by the American tenor René Barbera, and Alidoro by American bass-baritone Matthew Burns.

The show is being conducted by Will Crutchfield, who led Palm Beach Opera’s production of Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette last season. Crutchfield, who joined Genaux for the hotel lobby discussion of things operatic, said even newcomers to the opera can be easily won over by the sheer wit of Rossini’s writing, then sings the opening of the Act II sextet, Questo è un nodo avviluppato.

“You can’t miss the charm of that, even if you’re brand-new to it,” he said, adding later that the impact of Cenerentola comes down to one word: “Delight.”

Performances of La Cenerentola are set for 7:30 tonight and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday, at the Kravis Center. Tickets start at $20. Call 832-7469, 833-7888, or visit kravis.org or pbopera.org.

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Classical fans are in for a really busy next few days. An incomplete list includes:

Chamber music: The Pulse trio of Miami (violinist Scott Flavin, clarinetist Margaret Donahue Flavin and pianist Marina Radiushina) makes its first visit to Palm Beach County with a concert Sunday afternoon at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Palm Beach Gardens. The program includes music by Mozart, Khachaturian, Paquito D’Rivera and Fritz Kreisler, as well as works by Erberk Eryilmaz, Xiao Hu and Mark Weiser, gathered from Pulse’s call for scores last year. The free-admission concert starts at 3 p.m. Call 626-8626 for more information …. The Delray String Quartet continues its ninth season with the Piano Quintet of Cesar Franck (with pianist Tao Lin) as well as pieces by Sarasate, Hoffmeister and Zhou Long, whose Chinese Folk Songs will be heard to mark the Year of the Snake. 4 p.m. Sunday at the Colony Hotel, Delray Beach. Tickets: $35; call 213-4138 or visit www.delraystringquartet.com. …. The Fry Street Quartet of Chicago makes a return appearance to the Society of the Four Arts on Sunday afternoon with music of Haydn, Brahms, and the Quartet No. 1 of Benjamin Britten. 3 p.m., tickets: $15. Call 655-7226 or visit www.fourarts.org … On Tuesday, the Flagler Museum series continues with the Vienna Piano Trio. The Austrian threesome plans music by Haydn, Beethoven and the Piano Trio No. 2 (in E minor, Op. 92) of Camille Saint-Saëns. 7:30 p.m., tickets: $60 (includes champagne reception); call 655-2833 or visit www.flaglermuseum.us.

Sierra sings Mahler: The Broward County native and Dreyfoos grad Nadine Sierra, a rising soprano who sang in Orfeo ed Euridice for Palm Beach Opera and Rigoletto for Florida Grand Opera, is the soloist Monday night with the Palm Beach Symphony in the Fourth Symphony of Mahler, in a chamber orchestra arrangement by Erwin Stein. 7:30 p.m. Monday at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, Palm Beach. Tickets: $50. Call 655-7226 or visit www.palmbeachsymphony.org.

Choral notes: Soprano Lisa Vroman, who sang thousands of performances as Christine in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway and in other cities, returns to the Choral Society of the Palm Beaches on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon for two concerts of American music. Featured will be Howard Hanson’s Song of Democracy. The programs will be at the Lifelong Learning Society on the Jupiter campus of Florida Atlantic University; concerts are planned for 7 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $20; call 626-9997 for more information.