Candy Cottage Cannibals

New York’s Metropolitan Opera stages Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel at noon today. As part of the Metropolitan Opera: Live in High Definition Series, co-sponsored by the under-construction Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and the Lyric Opera, the performance will be simulcast at participating blockbuster-clogged multiplexes — including the Cinemark 20 (5500 Antioch in Merriam, 913-789-7555), the Cinemark Palace (500 Nichols, 816-756-5833) the AMC Studio 30 (12075 South Strang Line Road in Olathe, 816-363-4262) and the Regal Kansas City 18 (3200 Ameristar Drive, 816-454-7921). German soprano Christine Schäfer voices Gretel, and British mezzo-soprano Alice Coote steps into Hansel’s lederhosen. Humperdinck’s family-friendly version of Hänsel und Gretel alters some of the crueler aspects of the Grimm fairy tale. For example, the children are lost in the forest, not abandoned. However, the cannibalism remains. Tickets cost $22 for adults or $15 for children 11 and younger. For more information, see metopera.org/hd.

Tue., Jan. 1, noon, 2008