Distance

In recent days I was thinking about the concept of distance. Today I listened to an interview with Philip Glass in which he remarked that an opera usually is 8 to 10 years behind in terms of its first staging. So there will be a staging of an opera and then 8-10 years may pass before it’s restaged or picked up upon. I found this lag or distance curious and wondered which other art forms the same might be applied or uncovered? Also where does this put the composer in relation to the work if the world’s catching up after the fact. Is she/he essentially chronically dystopic? (or peri-lunar?)