PORTLAND – PCA Great Performances will bring the Carl Rosa Company production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s popular comic operetta “The Pirates of Penzance” to Merrill Auditorium Thursday, March 15.

This award-winning, restored production features stunning new period costumes, staging and designs.

West End star Rosemary Ashe, who created the role of Carlotta in the original “Phantom of the Opera,” will lead the cast with her performance as Ruth. The company also includes stalwarts of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, including Bruce Graham as the Sergeant of Police, Charlotte Page as Mabel and Barry Clark as Major-General Stanley.

This production of “The Pirates of Penzance” won the International Award for Operetta, Best Director and Best Production at the Gilbert and Sullivan festivals in San Francisco and Philadelphia.

The Royal Carl Rosa Opera Company was established in 1873 under the warrant of Queen Victoria. After a late 20th century hiatus, the company was relaunched in 1998 as the Carl Rosa Company by Peter Mulloy and Wyn Davies. Since that time, the company has garnered international esteem for its fresh and stunning traditional-style productions. Since the closing of the D’Oyly Carte, the company has become Britain’s oldest professional opera company and remains dedicated to keeping alive the heritage of Gilbert and Sullivan.

In recent seasons, PCA Great Performances has presented the Carl Rosa Company’s productions of “H.M.S. Pinafore” and “The Mikado.”

Written in 1879, “The Pirates of Penzance” is Gilbert and Sullivan’s send-up of grand opera. Now 127 years since its premiere, it remains an all-time favorite, with such familiar songs as “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” and “A Policeman’s Lot Is Not a Happy One.”

The March 15 performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $35, $41 and $48 and are available through PortTix, at the box office at Merrill Auditorium, by calling 842-0800, and online at portTix.com.

A free PCA Offstage precurtain lecture with Maine opera singer Richard Conrad will be offered backstage before the performance at 6 p.m.