BY KAREN BOSSICK

A live simulcast of Jacques Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” will launch the Metropolitan Opera’s season of live simulcasts on Saturday. The Met’s Live in HD series bring opera to movie theaters across the globe.

Sun Valley Opera and Broadway will present the simulcast at 10:55 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, at Merlin’s Magic Lantern in Ketchum. The concession counter will be open, thankfully, since the production runs four hours and 5 minutes.

The opera revolves around the poet Hoffmann who is love with Stella, a renowned opera singer. But, alas, Lindorf also loves her and has intercepted a note she has written to Hoffmann. As the story progresses, Hoffmann falls in love with a mechanical doll whom he perceives as human thanks to a pair of magic glasses. And the plot thickens.

“The Tales of Hoffmann” was Offenbach’s last work—he died with the manuscript in this hand on Oct. 5, 1880—144 years to the day before the Metropolitan Opera stages the opera.

Tenor Benjamin Bernheim will star as the tormented poet. His trio of lovers will be sung by soprano Erin Morley as the mechanical doll Olympia, soprano Pretty Yende as the plagued diva Antonia and mezzo-soprano Clementine Margaine as the Venetian seductress Giulietta.

Bass-baritone Christian Van Horn will take on the role of the four Villains and mezzo-soprano Vasilisa Berzhanskaya will play Hoffmann’s friend Nicklausse. Marco Armiliato will conduct Bartlett Sher’s production.

Merlin’s Magic Lantern is located at 100 East 2nd St. in Ketchum. Tickets can be purchased at the door. The cinema is now a credit card only business.