Diary of John Rabe

The opera "Diary of John Rabe" was commissioned by the Publicity Department of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and composed by Chinese composer Tang Jianping. It was directed by the internationally renowned American opera director Elijah Moshinski and premiered on December 13, 2017 at the Jiangsu Centre for the Performing Arts. In 2018, it was selected for the International Original Opera Awards. In 2019, it was performed at the Berlin State Opera/Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Vienna Ronacher Opera House, and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the hometown of John Rabe. This marked the first time a Chinese opera was performed at the highest-level opera houses internationally. The success of the European performances brought the opera international acclaim, leading to an opportunity to perform at the Lincoln Center in New York City in 2020. However, this performance was not realized due to the COVID-19 pandemic lasting three consecutive years. Nevertheless,the Jiangsu Centre for the Performing Arts filmed the opera as a movie, which was screened at the International Opera Film Festival at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in China in 2022. The opera tells the story of John Rabe, a German businessman, and other Europeans and Americans who established a safety zone in Nanjing in 1937, protecting Chinese refugees .