Composer Missy Mazzoli’s opera Proving Up is on at the Guildhall School [Caroline Tompkins]

WHEN you look through the cast list for an opera and find there’s a character called “The Sodbuster”, it’s a fair guess that this isn’t going to be Mozart; and indeed, Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up, which gets its UK premiere this week in a student staging at the Guildhall School, is not Mozart with a vengeance.

A disturbing take on the myth of the American Dream, it’s about a family trying to survive in the harsh conditions of 1870s Nebraska. And it’s the work of a New York-based composer whose operas have taken America by storm in recent years, though they’re only just beginning to surface over here.

One of those mercurial creative figures whose music crosses genres (with electric guitars) she has another UK premiere at the Edinburgh Festival in August – so here’s a chance to see if you like her soundworld before booking a train (expensive at Festival time). Proving Up is a good introduction, intimate but visceral. Runs Jun 1-8. gsmd.ac.uk

• More conventionally, the brilliant vocal ensemble I Fagiolini give a semi-staging of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Kings Place, May 31. kingsplace.co.uk

And if you really want some Mozart, David McVicar’s much-loved, much-revived production of Marriage of Figaro returns to the Royal Opera Jun 4-Jul 2. Though grandly conceived with big sets and crowded stages, it manages to be funny in ways that over-produced Mozart operas sometimes aren’t. And the magnificent Masabene Cecilia Rangwanasha should stop the show as the Countess. rbo.org.uk

• Wigmore Hall’s beyond-amazing programme for its 125th anniversary continues this week with more superstars than you could shake a stick at (should you feel the need to). Take one day, May 29, which offers Yunchan Lim at lunchtime and Christian Gerhaher at night. Then there’s Lise Davidsen May 31 & Jun 2. And another double-whammy Jun 1 when Igor Levit plays at lunchtime, while William Christie brings Les Arts Florissants over from France for an evening performance of Handel’s Acis & Galatea. When the Belcea Quartet play Brahms on May 3, it’s almost a come-down (though of course I don’t meant that: the Belcea are a class act).

How John Gilhooly, the Wigmore’s director, pulls this off is anybody’s guess. But don’t try figuring it out: just be grateful and queue for returns. wigmore-hall.org.uk

• Nothing so spectacular at the troubled Southbank these days where the administration is all over the place. But note the Philharmonia, Jun 4 at the Royal Festival Hall, with an evening of Richard Strauss that includes his rarely heard Burleske for piano and orchestra. Benjamin Grosvenor is the soloist. southbankcentre.co.uk

• Collectors of film music have two things to be excited about this week, though both are on the same night, May 30. The RPO have a cine-gala at the Albert Hall: royalalberthall.com. But more interestingly, the Salomon Orchestra at Smith Square dust down a score written by Prokofiev in 1936 for a film version of Pushkin’s Queen of Spades (not to be confused with Tchaikovsky’s opera). The film was never released. Prokofiev’s music got reworked into other things. But years later, Michael Berkeley turned the score into a ballet – which is what the Salomon are playing. sinfoniasmithsq.org.uk

• Finally, Schubert’s post-mortem song cycle Schwanengesang airs at Hampstead Parish Church, given by members of Hampstead Collective. Malachy Frame sings, Matthew Fletcher accompanies. Jun 1. thehampsteadcollective.com