Interpretation: Deconstruction, Post-Modern, Radical, Unsettling

[Jenna]

in Unsettling Opera Staging Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, and Zemlinsky Levin write, "what happens when operas that are more or less comfortably ensconced in the canon are thoroughly rethought and dramaturgically recast on stage. [...:] [How do these:] productions that, in important ways, unsettle our conception of these particular works and of the genre more generally?"

Have you seen such a production? What did you think? Did you find it appalling? Exhilarating? Interesting? Enlightening? Did you want to see more, or long for the traditional? What do make of recent trends in operatic staging?

[Norma]

Actually, every review I have read and every 'concept' I have read about has turned me off utterly. If you want the opera to say something different, write one that says what you want. From what I have read, Wagner suffers most from this 'rethinking' - though well he deserves it. I've seen photos of productions where you wouldn't have any idea of what's really going on.
Setting operas into different time periods usually produces a bit of a mishmash - as Verdi found out in Un Ballo in Maschera. It doesn't help that many opera libretti make a hash of real history. You have to accept these stories as they are, interpretations unconnected to real history.
The only opera I know of that could be usefully set in a different place and period is Lucia di Lamermoor. It would work perfectly in the immediate post-Civil War South. Just make Edgar a Yankee and you've got the whole thing. Of course, the antebellum South was strongly influenced by Sir Walter Scott.

[Emma]

I saw some scenes from a Rigoletto set in Vegas and a Le Nozze set in a bridal boutique. Is that what you mean?