Every nuance tells: Missy Mazzoli's Proving Up receives its UK premiere at Guildhall School

Missy Mazzoli: Proving Up - Sebastian Hill, Aidan O'Donnell  - Guildhall School (Photo: David Monteith-Hodge)

Missy Mazzoli: Proving Up; director: Amy Lane, conductor: James Henshaw; Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Reviewed by Edward Lambert (5 June 2026)

It was necessary to remind oneself that this was not a professional company. Amy Lane's production extracted every ounce of drama from the text and faithfully served the music

While student singers will understandably be keen to learn roles in ‘classical’ operas, there are advantages for them in performing new, unfamiliar works while in training. They can make such roles their own without regard to tradition or well-known interpretations. And the music colleges, with their resources and a huge amount of free labour at their disposal, may well consider it their duty to champion new opera when the larger houses can ill afford to take those risks. London owes a debt of thanks, therefore, to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for bringing Missy Mazzoli’s 2018 opera Proving Up to the Milton Court Theatre recently and there was no doubt that the young cast gave it their all and a lot more besides.

Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980) is a major force to be reckoned with in the USA and her operas flourish in the fertile soil of the American contemporary-opera scene. New operas by her will be premiered later this year at the New York Met (October) and the Edinburgh Festival (August). Her music is a far cry from the ingratiating, easy-listening style of Mark Adamo’s Little Women (seen at Opera Holland Park in 2022, see Robert's review) or even Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking (ENO, 2025). So, what with Angel’s Bone at ENO Manchester/London this year, Einstein on the Beach and Mazzoli’s own Breaking the Waves (ENO, 2027), American opera is fast conquering the UK’s contemporary-opera scene as well. (Meanwhile, the Royal Opera hasn’t yet managed to stage a single John Adams opera - an omission which is barely credible). 

Missy Mazzoli: Proving Up - Laura LeVoir, Miranda Kettlewell, Lowri Probert - Guildhall School (Photo: David Monteith-Hodge)

Unlike Breaking the Waves which is set in Scotland, Proving Up is American to the bone, its action taking place on the prairies of Nebraska following the state’s admission to the Union in 1867. The federal Homestead Act allowed migrants to claim free land if it was settled and cultivated for a period of five years. The process of supplying the required affidavits was known as Proving Up. It goes without saying that the legalities and fees involved excluded participation in the scheme by Native Americans.

Trees on the prairies were few and far between, and so the settlers constructed sod houses made from the thick prairie turf. To qualify as a dwelling, a glass window was required to be in place but, as glass was a rare and expensive commodity, this was a problem which could be circumvented by passing a window between neighbours in time for the Inspector’s visit. 

“What makes a home? Who owns the land?” is a recurring theme of Proving Up. After five long years, struggles against ‘drought, hail, locusts, dust and snow’, and two daughters already dead, it’s nearly time for the Zegner family to prove up. They even have the precious glass. Those two daughters, one of them taller than the other, appear as ghosts, helpfully acting as commentators on the story. “Where did Pa obtain the glass?” they ask. It soon transpires that he stole it. Wracked with guilt, he descends into drink. His eldest son Peter (a silent role) is immobilised too, so the onus falls on the youngest member of the family, Miles, to perform the feat of carrying the window to their distant neighbours who, if they can prove up, will entice the inspector to the area. This venture reckons without the appearance of the Sodbuster, a mysterious demonic creature of ‘blackened face’, the ghost of a farmer unhinged by his struggles for survival. As the nightmare unfolds, he tricks Miles out of the family’s most prized possession, the window, and finally takes him, lifeless, to join his dead sisters.

Missy Mazzoli: Proving Up - Sebastian Hill - Guildhall School (Photo: David Monteith-Hodge)

And so we have a drama which could hardly be more grounded in historical fact but which results in a piece of magical surrealism. Such a transformation is refreshing indeed and is matched at every turn by Mazzoli’s music. Hers isn’t an overly complex sound world, and it’s certainly not ‘difficult’. But it is strikingly fresh. Apparently, the composer aimed to portray the dryness of the landscape - there are frequent prayers for rain - but instead, I found her harmonies lush and resonant. Often the consonance was widely spaced, which evoked the expanse and awe of the prairies, while more ephemeral textures filled the space in between and lent an eeriness to the sound. 

The production by Amy Lane extracted every ounce of drama from the text and faithfully served the music. The sod house set and costumes by Anna Yates were of the period and were enhanced by the less-is-more lighting by Toby Ison. Towards the end of the opera, the sudden transformation of that precious glass into a mirror that reflects the darkness of the past is the work’s climax and was the production’s most memorable moment. Only the grave felt not quite right: rather than something that one climbs or is thrown into, here it looked confusingly like an inviting bed in the corner of the living room which characters rolled in and out of and curled up in. 

A young cast portraying older characters can sometimes be less than convincing, but this was certainly not the case here. Twm Tegid (baritone) as Pa and Lowri Probert (soprano) as Ma Zegner both have powerful, resplendent voices with stage personalities to match. Vocally and visually they dramatised their sufferings tellingly. Laura LeVoir as the Littler Daughter (soprano) and Miranda Kettlewell (mezzo) as the Taller Daughter possess both beautiful voices and excellent acting skills and blended perfectly in their many duos. Sebastian Hill (tenor) as Miles is an appealing lyric tenor with a sure-fire future and shone movingly in the “Does a window make a home?” aria. Only Aidan O’Donnell (bass-baritone) coped manfully, but seemed not quite at home, in the challenging role of the Sodbuster with its unforgiving extremes of tessitura; unsurprisingly, the part seems to require an older, experienced performer with a more developed lower register. 

The 13 players in the pit sounded as though the musical style was natural to them. This is, after all, a chamber opera, and every nuance tells. James Henshaw’s conducting ensured a perfect ensemble between stage and orchestra. The music is so well-written that exciting or exuberant passages never overwhelm the singers and every word came across clearly, mid-west accents to boot. All-in-all, it was necessary to remind oneself that this was not a professional company. Dominic Wheeler, the Head of Opera Studies at the Guildhall, should be proud of this five-star show.

Missy Mazzoli: Proving Up - Twm Tegid - Guildhall School (Photo: David Monteith-Hodge)

Composer Missy Mazzoli
Librettist Royce Vavrek
Based on a story by Karen Russell

Guildhall School of Music and Drama
James Henshaw, Conductor
Amy Lane, Director
Anna Yates, Set Designer, Costume Designer
Toby Ison, Lighting Designer
Jonathan Waller, fight director
Jack Stone, assistant conductor
Oscar Simms, assistant director

Sebastian Hill, Miles
Twm Tegid, “Pa” Zegner
Lowri Probert, “Ma” Zegner
Laura LeVoir, Littler Daughter
Miranda Kettlewell, Taller Daughter
Aidan O'Donnell, The Sodbuster
Kishore Walker, Peter

Elise Wiesinger, violin 1
Julie Piggott, violin 2
Shane Quinn, viola
William Lui, cello
Caetano Oliveira, double bass
Laura Jastrzebska, flute
Ben Adams, clarinet
Billy Harrold, bassoon
Owen McClay, horn
Nina Garvey, trumpet
Callum Speirs, percussion
Grace Ng, harp
Daniel Greenway / Alicia Hernández Huebra, piano

Never miss out on future posts by following us

The blog is free, but I'd be delighted if you were to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee.

Elsewhere on this blog

• St Magnus Festival at 50: a composer-led vision that still lives and breathes in the North - Alasdair Nicolson's article 
• Admirably reinvented for a small stage: Wild Arts intimate & vividly engaging account of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro - opera review 
• Extraordinary in her time: Joseph Phibbs & Dominic Sandbrook's new opera, Mrs T, aims to explore Mrs Thatcher as a personality, see how she reacted to political events - interview 
• Getting the keys to the toyshop: I chat to Ryan Wigglesworth about being Featured Artist at the 2026 Aldeburgh Festival featuring him as conductor, composer, & chamber musician - interview
• Beautifully well-matched casting & superb singing: David McVicar's production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Covent Garden - opera review
• Mining the contemporary: two American opera releases by Ricky Ian Gordon & Tobias Picker take inspiration from the AIDS crisis & an historical figure of trans identity - feature 
• In his passion for the music of Richard Wagner, Tony Cooper finds himself back in Germany attending Stefan Herheim’s widely acclaimed Ring cycle at Deutsche Oper Berlin - opera review 
• Strauss & Korngold: little known works by well-known composers in passionate performances from Francesca Dego & Alessandro Taverna at Conway Hall - concert review 
• Home