La Cieca is sometimes asked what it is that a dramaturg does, or why it is that an opera house needs a dramaturg. Well, the events of recent weeks make that explanation fairly easy to frame.

Briefly, a dramaturg is the person hired by an opera company to make sure that things like the The Merry Widow don’t happen. I think we can all agree that this is an extremely important duty, and that, by extension, the Met desperately needs someone who can perform it.