The ongoing Tianjin opera festival features six productions, including Carmen and A Masked Ball. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"These two operas are classics, and in our productions audiences see visual spectacles with new choreography and stage sets, especially the violent scene in Carmen," says director Giandomenico Vaccari.

As for the other performances, Italian opera house, the Teatro Regio di Parma, will perform Puccini's La boheme on Nov 18 and Verdi's A Masked Ball on Nov 19.

Teatro Comunale Luciano Pavarotti will perform Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville on Nov 12 and Mozart's Don Giovanni on Nov 26.

"All these six opera productions have come to Tianjin for the first time," says Guo Rui, the publicity director of Tianjin Grand Theater.

Since the first Tianjin International Opera and Dance Festival, more people in Tianjin have learned to enjoy the art form, says Guo. In 2016, 20 opera productions were staged during the festival, and they attracted over 60,000 people.

The festival is also attracting other Western theater companies to Tianjin.

For example, in its first year, Russian opera War and Peace, based on Leo Tolstoy's acclaimed novel of the same title, made its China debut at the event.

Besides opera productions, dance performances are also featured during the festival.

This year, Polish Dance Theater will showcase two contemporary works－The Harvest, choreographed by the theater's director Iwona Pasinska; and Bittersweet, by Polish dancer-choreographer Kaya Kołodziejcz－on Nov 29 and 30.

The Poznan-based theater, founded in 1973, is one of the best-known avant-garde dance ensembles in Poland.