Napans have been hoping for greater access to one of Napa’s premiere performance venues for a dozen years, and it’s coming to fruition with the introduction of the Jarvis Conservatory’s Saturday art film series.

The conservatory will also add a monthly opera experience at its jewel-box, state-of-the-art theater offering direct satellite uplinks from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

The first film presentation will be on Saturday, Sept. 8 at 6 and 8:30 p.m. with a screening of “La Vie en Rose,” the poignant story of the “French Sparrow,” Edith Piaf. A champagne reception, open to the public, precedes the first show at 5:30.

Conservatory president Leticia Jarvis conceived the series. With access to the very latest films as well as older classics, Jarvis personally picks the films, most of which are not otherwise available to Napa audiences. On Sept. 15, “Into Great Silence,” a sensitive 2006 Sundance Film Festival prizewinner will be shown. It is director Philip Groening’s study of a monastery whose silence is broken only by prayer and song.

In addition to films, Jarvis will offer superlative current operas from the Met, part of a continuing series as the famed opera develops its fall programming at Lincoln Center. The first Jarvis presentation will be on Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. featuring Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.”

Carrying on the tradition of working with the latest digital technology, Vlad Ponomarov, Jarvis’ technical director, has installed equipment to present films and satellite transmissions in high definition. This provides more lifelike sound, color and resolution than is possible with film typically shipped in metal cans to movie theaters and played from sprocket wheel projectors.

“It will be just like a night at the opera or live theater,” said William Jarvis, conservatory director.

Recently installed in the Jarvis theater’s control booth is a high definition DLP projector that delivers high quality images to the 24-foot screen on stage. “The picture is only half of the true movie experience,” he added. “The sound is also important.”

For that, the theater employs Dolby digital 5.1 channel sound, five channels with a sub-woofer that covers the lowest one-tenth of the audible range.

Jarvis Conservatory video productions, for more than a decade, have utilized the latest technology in recording the conservatory’s Spanish Zarzuela and Baroque ballet productions.

The Jarvis Conservatory will continue to offer the popular Saturday Opera Night on the first Saturday of each month. This tradition gives local singers a chance to perform in professional surroundings before a live audience.

In September, the fourth Saturday brings Jarvis’ famous Puppet Festival. The remaining Saturdays of each month will be reserved for art films and opera. Each month’s programs will be displayed on the conservatory website, www.jarvisconservatory.com.

The Jarvis Conservatory opened its doors in 1995. Since then, eleven Zarzuela workshops and four Baroque Ballet workshops have been conducted, with more than 550 artists participating. Sixteen professional DVDs of the productions are available for sale on the website.

Tickets will be available at the door of the Conservatory Theater located at 1711 Main St., Napa. Tickets for films are $10; Metropolitan Opera presentations are $18. For more information contact Susie O’Connor, manager, or Vlad Ponomarov, technical director, at 255-5445.