WNO's 'Carmen': Enlivening the familiar

The Washington National Opera opened its 60th anniversary season on Saturday night with "Carmen." Business as usual, you might say. Only it's not business as usual. The question of what we want from opera is often invoked in connection with new works, but it's no less relevant in productions of pieces from the canon. Do we want opera to be adventurous, cutting-edge, making statements about our world? And if we're not sure we want that, is the alternative familiarity: a work so often performed th...