Some 160 Chinese artists staged an epic Peking opera at Hungary's grandest State Theater here Wednesday night, giving the audience a taste of China's traditional performing arts and music.

The opera, titled Red Cliff and debuted in 2008, recounts an ancient battle during the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, around A.D. 200.

Budapest is the second stop of the first European tour by China's National Center for Performing Arts to present the highly-famed stage show.

"This opera house is 128 years old and it has never heard this kind of music," said Szilveszter Okovacs, government commissioner for the Hungarian State Opera.

Recalling his amazement when watching Red Cliff on DVD in his office for the first time last winter, he said he was glad that "my Chinese friends organized this tour and our Hungarian audience could see this wonderful performance tonight."

The Chinese troupe had staged Red Cliff in Vienna before arriving in Budapest. Its next stop is Prague.