Coates became one of the most popular festival singers in England, singing at the triennial Leeds Festival in 1901 and performing Elgar's oratorio "Dream of Gerontius" at Worcester in 1902, followed by numerous other Elgar works. In 1902, he was heard at the Berlin and Hanover royal opera houses and, in 1906, at key venues in Dresden, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Mannheim and Paris, plus the Cincinnati May Festival. He sang for the English seasons of the Moody-Manners Company at Covent Garden in 1907 and 1908. Coates took part in the May 1908 premiere (concert) performance of Ethel Smyth's "The Wreckers", with Blanche Marchesi, under the baton of Artur Nikisch at the Queen's Hall, and in the Thomas Beecham production of the same work at His Majesty's a year later. He appeared with the Carl Rosa company in 1909. Coates was a successful London Don Jose in Bizet's "Carmen". He was with the Beecham Company for the spring, summer and winter seasons of 1910, in which the brilliant production of Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffman" owed its success mainly to him, and he also appeared in an exceptionally romantic interpretation of Pedro in Eugen d'Albert's "Tiefland". In 1911-13, he toured with the Quinlan Opera Company in provincial England, Australia and South Africa.