Having just reviewed my way through the classical music program at this year’s Sydney Festival you might think I’d be all festival-ed out, but to be honest, the heady maelstrom of one can just as easily whet your appetite for the next. And let’s face it, it’s summer in Australia so what better reason to get out of the Limelight office.

I’m aware that comparisons are odious but the first thing you notice when you step off the plane in WA is that it’s hotter here – well over 30 degrees to be precise. The second thing you learn about Perth’s offering, once you start to read the publicity blurb, is that the city may be smaller but the Festival is in fact bigger and longer. With a substantial program of film added on, Perth Festival counts as Australia’s largest arts event.

The night before I travelled I spoke to Michael Barenboim, violinist and son of Daniel, who is coming out to play Mozart concertos with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields on February 21 and 23. He too was also looking forward to Perth. “It’s my first time in Australia”, he told me, “but I can only stay for a few days which is a shame as I have a good friend in Perth”.

Barenboim defied popular expectations of becoming a pianist like both of his parents and instead studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris before admitting that he had a musical calling. “To be honest, I think the choice of violin was because there was a good teacher where I grew up”, he admits. He became the concertmaster of his father’s special project, the East-West Divan Orchestra, at the age of 15 so he knows what it is to lead a band – the ASMF are famously ‘conductorless’. Having seen Anne-Sophie Mutter doing just that a week ago in Sydney I’m aware of the chamber music-like thrill. “I don’t even give a down-beat,” Barenboim says proudly.

He also knows what it is to be on the road. Still only 27, he’s been out there performing for over a decade. The East-West Divan usually rehearses in Seville. “Arab musicians aren’t allowed to rehearse in Israel,” he explains, “so most summers we travel to Spain.” He’s a keen chamber musician too, playing duets with his mother, the pianist Elena Bashkirova, for many years now. “I play with my father too,” he says, “but only when it’s to do with the East-West Divan.”

Another group of travelling musicians were already here when I arrived: eight members of the Cape Town Opera Chorus are supplementing the West Australian Opera Chorus in Simon Phillips’ staging of Verdi’s Otello – a co-production with the South African company who premiered it last year. I catch up with them backstage at His Majesty’s to find out how it’s gone. “Perth feels like home”, they say, as soon as I inquire. “It’s hot, just like South Africa,” they add, a fact that I’ve noticed too.

Growing up in Cape Town and becoming an opera singer doesn’t seem odd to these chaps (Vuyisa Jack, Lusindiso Dubula, Nkosana Sitimela, Andile Tshoni, Mthunzi Mbombela, Lubabalo Velebayi and two by the name of Lindile Kula (senior and junior though not actually related). All of them started singing young, at home, in school choirs and particularly in the ubiquitous church choirs. In fact, in South Africa everyone sings and it’s quite a competitive activity. Getting into an opera company then is very much a badge of honour – a far cry from the slightly nerdy connotations it carries in Australia and Europe.

Their chorus master Albert Horne is keen to point out the level of training required, but even more so the unique energy of the group. “These boys don’t just sing – they can jump and dance like no other opera chorus I know,” he tells me. It’s those qualities, along with a distinctive, open sound, that won them the Best Chorus Award at last year’s inaugural Opera Awards in London – the only company in the southern hemisphere recognised in what looked like a very Anglo-European affair.

So opera is the new pop in Cape Town. I’m curious about them doing Otello, an opera traditionally about a black guy driven mad by a wicked white guy. How does that work in South Africa. “Colour isn’t important for us at all,” says Horne, himself a white man. “You would never get an all-white company so it wouldn’t makes sense for Othello to be black either. We are completely used to seeing a white Rigoletto with a black daughter. Nobody would think it was odd.” The apparently personal decision of the Italian tenor in the show to ‘black up’ therefore seems somewhat at odds. “We don’t know why this singer has chosen to apply dark makeup,” says Horne. “To be honest it raised a few eyebrows.”

Meanwhile the singers are on a roll with a well-received concert the night before and plenty of work back home. For those who want to see them, they made a historic appearance a few years back in a concert version of Porgy and Bess with the Berlin Phil and Simon Rattle (available to view through the BPO’s Digital Concert Hall). For most of them this is their magical opera moment. I ask them too, who are their opera heroes? There are a couple of votes for Domingo while a couple are Kaufmann fans. Lawrence Brownlee, the American bel canto specialist gets a look in as well but top of the poll is Welsh wizard, Bryn Terfel. They will be backing him up in concert soon after they get home – the excitement is palpable.

Otello finished its run last night (see my review here) so it’s been very much a day of arrivals and departures. The Festival for me continues tomorrow though.