For the average older music lover, “Dance of the Hours” invariably conjures up images of Walt Disney’s plump pirouetting hippos in “Fantasia.” Or possibly Allan Sherman’s  summer-camp horror story “Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda.” Any connection to Amilcare’s Ponchielli’s very grand opera “La Gioconda” would more likely be left to the erudition of the panel on the Metropolitan Opera quiz. “Gioconda” {…}