This is our guide for all lead artists in Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival, explaining the details of what it involves, including what we’ll do for you, and what we’ll need you to do.
Festival Management
Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival is programmed, managed and staffed by producing opera company Tête à Tête.
Dates & Venues
8th – 20th September The Cockpit, Gateforth Street, London NW8 8EH
You can watch almost every festival show since 2008 on our website. Do explore these past productions to understand better how we work.
Performance formats
One performance per production & generally two different productions per night.
Optimal length per production 30-40 minutes.
The other live option is that you organise the venue yourself, outside but close to our performance dates, and finance it yourself, charging the same ticket prices we do but keeping 100% of the takings. We will then do our very best to help as much as we can, for example with marketing and production support and mentoring.
Box Office
If having lots of paying bums on seats (and higher box office income) is a priority for you, it will require you to rigorously market your show, so remember to factor this into your planning.
You also need to consider what your audience is likely to pay.
Audiences choose between paying £6.50, £17.50 or £29.50 per production. Most pay £6.50.
London festival shows in 2025 averaged net income of £448.19, with the lowest income being £101.77 and the highest £1810.50.
Watch Parties
Strictly optional, but great for those who ask for them, Watch Parties are fun, free, informal online events after the live festival has finished where we watch your show together with a prebooked audience, then chair a panel discussion. We’ll check whether you’d like one once the festival planning is well under way and you have a clearer idea of what you are doing with your show.
Filming & Photography
It is a condition of taking part in the festival that every performance is videoed and photographed and posted free to access online. By participating, you agree to secure the rights to do this from everyone involved in your show.
Sustainability
Please consider seriously the Sustainable Productions guidance in the Theatre Green Book. We have signed up to Music Declares Emergency and encourage you to do the same. You can see our Action Plan here: Environmental Policy & Action Plan 2026 – 2027.docx.
Inclusion
Look carefully at power structures, personnel and practices to make sure they are as inclusive as possible. Strive to remove barriers to inclusion. You can see our Action Plan here: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy & Action Plan 2026 – 2027.docx
Tête à Tête provides you with the following:
– A two-camera edit video of your show posted online
– Audience feedback on your work if requested
– Production photos to download from Flickr
– Free tickets to see other performances as part of the Participants’ Sharing Scheme
– Mentoring to help develop artistic and management skills of your company, step-by-step guides, festival assets and weekly ‘thing to do’ reminders for you to market your show
– Mutual support in regular Zoom meetings
– Festival management
– Box office services
– Donation collection service
– Advice on Theatre Tax Relief
– Front of house welcome
– Festival brand marketing and press
For Tête à Tête venues:
– Performance space
– Tech support and in-house kit
– 50% of net box office receipts
For Artist-Sourced venues:
– 100% of net box office receipts
And You:
– Provide the performance (the work, creative team, performers and production)
– Guarantee that the work is a world [or at least regional] première
– Undertake to talk to us if you intend to perform the work again nearby around the same time
– Credit Tête à Tête in all further performances of the work
– Secure the rights from all stakeholders in your work to the free distribution online of the video of your performance
– Support us in our commitments to:
– Work sustainably
– Pay appropriately
– Do their very best to remove all barriers to inclusion
Supporting your company:
While you control this, not us, we feel strongly that everyone should be properly remunerated for their work. Here are some ideas:
Box office income. The more tickets you sell, the more income you get. We take no commission.
Grants and donations: You can check out everybody who has funded a festival show over the past 5 years at Who’s Funded What.
Support-in-kind: You might share resources and skills with artists in your team. For example, a pianist-producer might agree to accompany singers for future auditions, or someone might offer free rehearsal space they have access to.
Arts Council England: Fiercely and increasingly competitive but has supported many festival shows in recent years. You will do better if you have other funding in place from the above sources before applying.