Israeli Opera Festival aims to attract Chinese visitors

Artists perform an opera song during a press conference of the Akko Opera Festival held in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, June 15, 2016. [Photo/cri.cn]

Hanna Munitz, head of the Israeli Opera company, says they chose "The Abduction from the Seraglio" especially for Akko.

"In 'The Abduction' you have this conflict between two cultures, the western culture and the Middle East culture. What Akko has is not exactly that, it's a city that has Arabs and Jews, but we chose to show the Arab figure, which is the Pasha, in a more romantic way, a person who is very beautiful, open-minded, and caring for people. We thought that it is a good way to try and find the balance in our cultures that we can both live with it."

The old city of Akko has been inscribed in the UN's World Heritage list since 2001.

Akko, also known as Acre, has been historically significant for centuries.

Today, Akko is one of the few Israeli cities where Jews and Arabs still live together in relative peace and harmony.