Dan Okulitch as Don Giovanni, gazing at our fantastic makeshift crucifix, hereby proving you really can make anything out of gaff tape

It's Saturday morning; I'm sitting in our first Don Giovanni orchestra reading. Normally I require beta blockers in order to function in the first reading of a show, because it's during the first orchestra rehearsal that all sorts of things I didn't realize I'd forgotten about tend to leap from the bushes. (This doesn't actually happen all that often but it could happen, so of course I get anxious about it). I worry that I forgot to mark a cut in someone's part. I worry that maybe somebody has the wrong rehearsal numbers somehow, or that I forgot that important Act I finale orchestra 3 insert (there is a great Charles Ives-ish section in the Act I finale where there are THREE DIFFERENT ORCHESTRAS all playing at once). I even worry -- seriously-- that the musicians will forget to show up. Fortunately, Don Giovanni couldn't be farther from the Big Night gala in terms of the orchestra librarian's experience. We are performing this piece without cuts, and there is little to jump out and eat me. Then again, we aren't even an hour in so ask me about this again in a week.

Clutching our pearls: Our racy Don Giovanni

First, a delightfully concise summary of the action, from PBS's website: