Terrorism or no terrorism, the show must go on. One week after the horrifying attacks in Paris, two of Canada’s finest arts companies – 75 strong – are again performing at the Royal Opera House <PHOTO ABOVE> in the Chateau de Versailles.

The performance this time is dedicated to the victims of the Bataclan concert hall massacre, and began with the French national anthem, ‘La Marseillaise’. The work being performed is ‘Armide’, a French opera set in Syria during the crusades. “It’s a sort of Romeo and Juliet. A Christian knight and a Muslim warrior princess, they fall in love when they shouldn’t,” said David Fallis, the conductor of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.

“I still can’t believe that this is the piece we brought here,” said Marshall Pynkoski, co-founder and co-artistic director of Opera Atelier. “I’ve never seen our art form put to better or more profound use.”<PHOTOS ABOVE AND BELOW – Opera Atelier’s 2015 production of ‘Armide’, photographer Bruce Zinger>

Opera Atelier was founded in 1985 by co-artistic director MARSHALL PYNKOSKI and his dancer/choreographer wife, JEANETTE LAJEUNESSE ZINGG. Their plan was to perform Baroque operas in their “original theatrical modes.” The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra was founded in 1979.  Both companies have performed several times over the last few years at the Royal Opera House in Versailles. Their home-base is TORONTO.