Is opera escapist? Not this March at the National Opera, where Blue receives its D.C. premiere (its world premiered took place last July at the Glimmerglass Festival). The composer is Jeanine Tesori, whose musical Fun Home won five Tony Awards in 2015, including Best Musical. The librettist and director is Tazewell Thompson. In telling the story of a black family in Harlem—a police officer, his wife, and their politically active son—the team took inspiration from literary works by James Baldwin, Claude Brown, and Ta-Nehisi Coates. —L.J.