Tête à Tête announces its expansion to create opportunities to empower emerging local talents this spring and summer.

The company will hold workshops with local opera makers, Tête à Tête singers, and instrumentalists from the Royal Northern Sinfonia as a first step in developing native new opera in the North East. The workshop is held in Newcastle on May 14 and 15. Next up its a collaboration with the Royal College of Music in “Revolutions,” a series of new mini-operas by Royal College of Music composers. Peformances run June 24-28. On July 7,  Tête à Tête will perform a new opera gala, “GALA 2024” with the full orchestra of the Royal Northern Sinfonia and hundreds of local participants, with the aim of founding a community chorus for a future major opera production.

The annual Tête à Tête: “The Opera Festival” returns to London with premieres from across the UK and beyond, and a signature blend of genres from abstract experimental to absurdist comedy. The festival runs Aug. 24- Sept. 29. Returning home to Cornwall, Tête à Tête gives two concert performances of Ethyl Smyth’s “The Boatswain’s Mate,” which will feature a community chorus. The concerts take place at the Minack Theatre in Penzance on Sept. 10 and 12.

Artistic Director Bill Bankes-Jones expressed the excitement in a press release by saying, “After a comparatively quiet year in 2023, it’s really thrilling to contemplate the huge amount and extent of work we’ll be making in 2024, and really inspiring to reflect how much of it will connect artists, participants and audience with the stories of our time.”