Possibly you’ve heard of the new wind blowing at the Metropolitan Opera, where contemporary novelties and the classics of tomorrow—Dead Man Walking, Champion, Florencia en el Amazonas, etc.—are the new box-office darlings. Well, if the good old days are what you hanker after, January with its unrelieved diet of warhorses is the month you’ve been waiting for. There’s Verdi (Nabucco), and there’s Puccini (La Bohème, Madama Butterfly), all in productions that won’t scare the horses. Plus, wow!, there’s also Carmen in modern dress, directed by the British Carrie Cracknell in her house debut with sharp attention to cutting-edge issues like “gendered violence, abusive labor structures, and the drive to break through societal boundaries.” The principals for the first run (through January 27) are the smoking-hot, 20-something Aigul Akhmetshina, Opera magazine’s first cover girl for 2024 (Carmen, defier of convention), Piotr Beczała (Don José, mama’s boy), Angel Blue (Micaëla, his girl back home), and Kyle Ketelsen (Escamillo, hot stuff in the bull ring, a showcase that no longer exists). Daniele Rustioni conducts. The spring run (April 25 to May 25) finds Clémentine Margaine, Michael Fabiano, Ailyn Pérez, and Ryan Speedo Green in the principal roles, paced by Diego Matheuz. —Matthew Gurewitsch