Mozart's Overture to Don Giovanni opened this concert, and so the night begins with murder. They used to call this a jocular piece. It is a collection of nasty people, all wearing masks in life as well as on stage, all lying about something and more than ready to blame everyone else.
Nothing really matters.
Only the mocked fool Donna Elvira has a heart and sincerity, yet she too ends as a prisoner of life's devious double deals. She is going to waste away her life, asking forgiveness for sins she has never committed. The opening bars of the overture are trully awful. Some great maw is about to take a bite out of everyone. And it is almost longer than Aida.