The "Diaries of John Rabe," which tells the story of an ordinary German in a Chinese city ravaged by World War II, has been staged in Vienna as part of the Chinese opera's European tour.

The story is based on the personal journals of businessman John Rabe, who lived in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing at the time of the Nanjing Massacre.

The theme music for the "Diaries of John Rabe" is based on Johann Sebastian Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, combined with folk music elements of Jiangsu Province, where Nanjing is situated.

The opera was jointly produced by the Jiangsu Center of the Performing Arts and the Jiangsu Performing Arts Group, two prestigious institutions in eastern China.

"The opera was created three years ago. It has been staged in major cities across China before its European tour this year. It has received positive feedback from Chinese critics and audiences. So we’re quite confident that opera goers in Europe will relate to the story and the music. It is art inspired by history." tenor Xue Haoyin said.

"I played the leading role and have found it a very inspiring experience. It's not enough to just delve on the past. We have to extract the lessons from history and present them to the audience. It is profoundly moving for me," Xue added.

John Rabe is best known for his efforts in trying to stop the atrocities of the Japanese army during the occupation of Nanjing and for protecting and helping Chinese civilians. The Nanjing Safety Zone, which he helped establish, sheltered approximately 200,000 Chinese people and saved them from slaughter.

The three-hour show played to a full house in Vienna. The stop in the Austrian capital marked the successful conclusion of the show's European tour after performances in Berlin and Hamburg.