Review: ‘A Night of Mellon Collie’ at Lyric Opera reveals itself as a very Billy Corgan operatic concert

There was no shortage of curiosity and surprise on Friday for the world premiere of Billy Corgan’s “A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness” at Lyric Opera. Having been kept for months a tight-lipped secret about what the concert would constitute, the adaptation of the Smashing Pumpkins’ grandiose 1995 double album in operatic form validated the core strengths of its compositions — and reinforced Corgan’s unofficial status as the biggest romantic of his generation.

Rather than presenting the acclaimed record as a character-based narrative akin to a traditional opera, the roughly 90-minute program (plus an intermission) wisely focused on the music’s greatest assets. Namely, the sweeping melodies, majestic architecture, baroque accents and quirky flourishes that distinguish it from th