Melinda Hughes in Melania the Opera

THE joke of Donald Trump doesn’t provoke much laughter these days, but his wife Melania is another matter: there’s still something there to raise a smile, perhaps. And if she strikes you as a hoot, you’ll want to see Melania the Opera: a tribute (of sorts) in song that plays the Cockpit Theatre, Marylebone, as part of the Tête à Tête Opera Festival.

A little show about big subjects like world war and mascara, it’s the brainchild of operatic satirist Melinda Hughes, who sings the title role and can confidently assume that her prospects of ever visiting America again are over.

CNJ readers who get their newspapers early and waste no time can just about make the first ­perfor­mance on September 25. But there’s another on October 2. Do not expect reverence. thecockpit.org.uk

• More conventional comedy comes to Hackney Empire when English Touring Opera bring their new production of Donizetti’s Elixir of Love for one night, September 27 (hackneyempire.co.uk). And English National Opera opens its new autumn season with Rossini’s La Cenerentola: a take on the Cinderella story that removes a lot of the fairytale magic but replaces it with laughs. September 27-October 14. eno.org

• Now the Proms season is over, it’s time for reflection on the highs and lows. And those who survived the all-night Prom might just remember a valiant performance by the young Russian cellist Anastasia Kobekina – who is at Wigmore Hall, September 27, in a lunchtime concert that pairs Bach with music of our own time, including something by composer-of-the-moment, Oliver Leith (wigmore-hall.org.uk).

Should you want to devote the rest of your day to cello music, another star player, Alicia Weilerstein, is also playing Bach alongside new works in two recitals at the Purcell Room: one mid-afternoon, one early evening (southbankcentre.co.uk). Not sure if that’s good or bad timing.

• Meanwhile, another Proms memory that stays in my head is the extraordinary screeching noise made by guitarist Sean Shibe on the electric instrument for which composer Mark Simpson had written a brand-new concerto.

Shibe’s conversion to electric hasn’t pleased his fans across the board. But he’s electrified again at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, September 28 – this time for a new work by Oliver Leith (see above) called Doom and the Dooms. With a narrative about an imaginary concert played by a fictional band, it suggests a Sgt Pepper fantasy. And plugged in or otherwise, Shibe is a charismatic performer. southbankcentre.org.uk

• The venerable London Chamber Music Society has called time on its long-term relationship with Kings Place and decided to relocate to St John’s Waterloo: the church opposite the station that underwent a major renovation not so long ago and has become a more comfortable venue as a result.

The first LCMS season at St John’s starts September 28 with the Heath Quartet playing Haydn and the 20th-century Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz whose works were little known until recently but are now pouring out of cupboards onto the concert stage and proving serious discoveries. londonchambermusic.org.uk

• Finally, two major pianists go head to head on September 30, putting keyboard-lovers in a quandary. Richard Goode is at the Wigmore (wigmore-hall.org.uk) playing Beethoven, while Imogen Cooper is at JW3 in Finchley Road, playing Busoni and Schubert (jw3.org.uk). A hard choice there.