What happens when you mix an 18th century classical opera with 1980s Wall Street?

“A night of debauchery,” says Ben Cohen, the director of Vegas City Opera’s Don Giovanni.

“The whole opera is taking place at one huge, crazy ‘80s party. Don Giovanni’s house is filled with cocaine, lots of alcohol, drugs, sex, crazy hairdos and fun suits,” Cohen tells the Weekly.

It’s fittingly parallel to the setting of the 1787 opera written by Mozart, which revolves around a legendary 14th-century libertine Don Giovanni, a man of high status and low morals and an infamous seducer of women. The production, playing May 17-18 at Charleston Heights Arts Center, promises to modernize age-old themes.

“With the opera, all of these stories are really about people and greed and money and love. It’s universal. So these stories are still so incredibly relevant,” says Ginger Land-van Buuren, executive director with Vegas City Opera.

Cohen says 1980s Wall Street shares some historical parallels to the setting of Don Giovanni, and serves as a backdrop to a story that tells a lesson about karma.

“It’s a tale about how greed and power can affect a person, and how that can affect the people around him,” Cohen says. “During that time in the 1980s … there was a lot of illegal activity going on in Wall Street. There was a lot of insider trading. … Until it all comes crashing down on Black Monday.”

The production company is updating Don Giovanni not only with mountains of coke and shoulder pads, but also with music. Under the direction of maestro Paul Schrage, Vegas City Opera and members of the Las Vegas Sinfonietta will bring more contemporary sounds into the score.

“Some orchestra members are going to be electrified … [So] every once in a while, you’re going to hear the cello or the first violin rock out a little bit,” Land-van Buuren says.

The opera will be sung in Italian and have English subtitles on a projector over the proscenium. The nonprofit Vegas City Opera aims to tell the stories of opera in a “distinct and accessible way,” and that rings true for this production, as well.

“I think it’s really exciting for the audience to see such a classic and well-known story told in a new perspective that they can relate to,” Cohen says.

Three reasons to see Don Giovanni

1. Money When Cohen was researching 1980s Wall Street, he found characters who had so much money, they didn’t know what to do with it. Land Van-Buuren says money is a motivator and plot driver in Don Giovanni. “When you take a story like this, you have the people who are hangers-on or will do whatever it is just to stay attached to that money,” she says.

2. Music While opera can come off as a little old-fashioned for 21st century audiences, Vegas City Opera shows that it doesn’t have to be. They update the score with ‘80s flourishes. “You’re going to feel like it’s a 1980s party with a beautiful warmth of classical sound underneath,” Land-van Buuren says.

3. Karma While he is a man of status, Don Giovanni is also a rapist, murderer, liar and a general villain. “Women were obsessed with him, and he had power and money,” Cohen says. His abuse of power and mistreatment of people come back to bite him, in the end. “It’s a story to show morals. … If you act and treat people badly, you will pay.”

Don Giovanni May 17-18, 7 p.m., $25-$40 (students free). Charleston Heights Arts Center, vegascityopera.org.

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