The Opera Mauritius festival itself was born of an encounter between Paul Olsen, then president of the FSC, Katrin Caine, a German soprano based in Mauritius and Martin Wettges, German conductor. In 2009 the first edition of the festival brought together highly regarded European and talented Mauritian artists and the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra to perform The Pearl Fishers by Georges Bizet. This was a challenge met from the very first year.

In 2010 the second edition of the festival with the opera Carmen definitively marked out the event as an annual operatic fixture in the Indian Ocean. Eminent personalities from the international opera world were present including the directors of the operas of Perth and Cape Town, in recognition of the artistic qualities of the festival and its international standard.