Pioneering opera festival ends with lockdown series

Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2020 began back in July, with its opening night the first live indoor opera post-lockdown.

Since then, the festival has been key in helping the industry get back on its feet - over the summer it featured 19 live shows at The Cockpit Theatre to a total audience of 435 people, allowing 107 opera makers back into the theatre.

Described as a 'music-theatre party bag', the festival’s 2020 season finishes with a bang as it hosts one final opera as well as two exciting talks.

On 27 November, the festival will present Elena, a show about how trauma is carried across generations. During the show, we meet three generations of women, and are invited to step into their memories, and live them through the lens of their altered thoughts.

This powerful, surrealist show is a reflection on how your ancestor’s lives can alter your own reality, the realisation that death is not the end of everything and that true love can surpass the unthinkable. Full info here.

The programme also includes two talks.

Artistic Director Bill Bankes-Jones - recently awarded a BEM for services to opera and diversity - shares insights into programming and platforms, buildings and box office, marketing and monetising, and how Health & Safety was navigated in an Opera and Music Theatre Forum (OMTF) Team Talk on 25 November. Full info here.

Then on 27 November, the team will present Powder Room Talks. This year’s festival was host to a wide range of women creatives, from creators, to producers, singers, and directors, with women-led works tipping the scale.

Powder Room, hosted by Aukoko and Tête à Tête, will see creatives coming together to explore innovation and the creative process in times of Covid-19, and the future of women opera-makers. Full info here.

[ Cover photo courtesy of Claire Shovelton ]