I decide to attend the opera, with Raisinets and bonbons.

The sound here is first-rate and doesn’t appear overly miked. Camera work is perhaps a bit too tight – especially for the woman to my left who keeps wishing the lens would “pull back.”

Either way, the viewer has to take what’s given by the simulcasters and, during close-ups at least, is deprived of visual options. The super-titles are right on the screen about one-third of the way up – instead of well above the stage as in opera theaters in L.A. and San Francisco. “Doctor Atomic,” about the scientists who developed the first atom bomb, is sung in English, but I still appreciate having the words on the screen.

The opera pulsates with onstage activity. With a moving wall of human-size cubicles – alternately occupied by scientists, secretaries, or head-dressed native Americans – there’s a lot to keep track of. There is also a moving watchtower, a dangling Buick-sized A-bomb, and a backdrop of military techno-junk. Not to mention a cast of several dozen performers who scurry to and fro.

The high definition cameras let you see the beads of perspiration develop on foreheads as easily as you can read the colored letters on a boy’s pajamas. One wonders how this big-screen exposure to minute detail will play out in other operas.

In the L.A. Opera performance of “Carmen,” for instance, a small log fire glowed like the real thing from a distance. But a quick glance in opera glasses exposed the bulb-lit, plastic flames. What will these cameras mean for other onstage artifice?

•••

Intermission at the New York Met offers a window for more added-value features at the Burbank multiplex. Susan Graham, the Mary Hart-style host of “Met Live in HD,” chats on video with headliner Finley, who plays Dr. Robert J. Oppenheimer. He discusses the music and performance.

Next up is John Adams himself, who tells of his motivations for the opera as well as its history. And don’t head out for popcorn just yet. Two historians talk about the real-life backstory of the A-bomb project at Los Alamos, N.M., recounting details of the inner tensions and outside weather during that fateful moment.

On this Saturday, the theater is only about two-thirds full. But several people tell me empty seats are usually a rarity in these monthly broadcasts. I personally will be going back to every big screen opera I can squeeze in between lawn mowings. I figure that, after attending six months worth of performances, I’ll have experienced a little vicarious Met culture – at a savings of $768 over the New York ticket prices.

That buys a lot of Raisinets and bonbons. With cash left over for some tinted Foster Grants.

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