Yes, it was a singing part. The lady had a good voice. But they could have done something to make her look a little like the part she was portraying. Pavarotti, Price, etc. were made up to look like the part as much as possible and you could envisage them as the character they were singing. I didn’t feel anything out of kilter with them. There was respect for the opera. But this was really over the top.
I felt that the stage director was trying to make a political point, and was deliberately throwing the anomaly in the audience’s face.
Good point. Maybe the stage director was trying to cash in on the success of Hamilton. : )