I don't like this version very much, as I didn't like the previous one either :)

So, what about having the configure() method in the superclass returning a boolean to signal the superclass setup to continue with the initialization/open or not? The former case would be the standard one, when you want to just add some additional configuration, while the latter would happen for "special" tests like the executor or recovery ones, when you want to have full control over initialization/open.

What do you think?