Thanks for the intriguing points about present-day stagings. I see what you mean: that a superb musical performance, and persuasive acting, etc., can help one swallow a concept-driven production that might, when described in a few words, sound utterly inapt and distracting.

You've given me food for thought, as I prepare to attend two operas at Glimmerglass: Le nozze di Figaro, and Handel's Tolomeo....

thanks so much for posting this. We only managed one opera at Bayreuth last week (Die Meistersinger), turning down the possibility of seeing Lohengrin because we hadn't "prepared" and wanted to visit Bamberg and Wuerzberg before returning home the next day. And we had not sufficiently briefed ourselves on Katherina''s bold, provocative re-imagination of the opera, and regret that immensely. I will say that we found the vocal performances superb, even though we were quite confused by the staging.....
Look forward to hearing more of your reports
Judy