The Dance of the Hours from La Gioconda

Although The Dance of the Hours is the main reason why La Gioconda - first performed in Milan in 1876 - is remembered today, it has little or nothing to do with any of the complicated events in the opera. It is an entertainment put on by Alvise Badoero, a chief of the State Inquisition in 17th-century Venice, to entertain his guests in the Ca’ d’oro. It might have some symbolic significance, to do with the struggle of light against dark, or good against eveil - and there is plenty of both in La Gioconda - but to the casual observer it represents four different times of day. So there is an introductory Dawn, followed by an attractively fresh Day, a poetic Evening and an up-all-Night. Devotees of Fantasia, however, will no doubt prefer to retain Walt Disney’s images of dancing hippos and crocodiles. Indeed, it is difficult to forget them.