When the Metropolitan Opera began to roll out Robert Lepage’s production of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, in 2010, I was a student who spent most of my time at the Met in the Family Circle — the uppermost, least expensive seats.

The “Ring” I remember was musically imperfect but visually awesome, with moments of stunning grandeur. This wasn’t the “Ring” I read about in the press, though.

Most of the critics loathed the 45-ton machine at the heart of Mr. Lepage’s production: a hulking kinetic sculpture made of 24 planks that spin into a variety of configurations conjuring the dozen-plus sets called for in Wagner’s four-opera saga. (The scenic design is heavily reliant on animating the machine with video projections.)

Anthony Tommasini, in The New York Times, called it “the most frustrating opera production I have ever had to grapple with.” Alex Ross, in The New Yorker, went so far as to say, “Pound for pound, ton for ton, it is the most witless and wasteful production in modern operatic history.”