Lyric Opera’s “A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness,” with Dominick Valdés Chenes, Zoie Reams Billy Corgan, Edward Parks and Sydney Mancasola/Photo: Cory Weaver

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Billed as “A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness,” Friday night was not your typical night at the opera.

As audience members walked in, the Lyric Opera Orchestra was facing them head-on from the front of an extended stage, bathed in blue light that also was shining on the stage proscenium and opera-house walls with shimmering star projections.

Sun and moon sculptures were placed on the proscenium walls next to each side of the stage, with huge video monitors placed beneath them.

Regular opera goers started glancing at their watches as the usual Lyric start time that is so notoriously and promptly observed came and went. Rock time is not opera time.

After the chorus emerged from the rear, the concertmaster walked out to applause and tuned the orchestra, and the conductor walked out to more applause. The familiar piano riff that opens the 1995 Smashing Pumpkins’ album “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” began as the title track unfolded in a light, schmaltzy orchestration.

A military-like march emerged from the snare drum, which settled into “Tonight, Tonight,” begun in a vocal duet by soprano Sydney Mancasola and mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams. Solo cello lines weaved around it.

Tenor Dominick Valdés Chenes rendered “Jellybelly” with choral punctuations and cello lines continuing.

Baritone Edward Parks intoned “Beautiful,” but all four soloists and chorus joined in.

Lyric Opera’s “A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness,” with Billy Corgan/Photo: Cory Weaver

Part of the fun of the evening for those who have heard the album versions of these songs was how quickly they became recognizable, given how different they sounded stripped of rock-band instrumentation and raw vocals and reimagined for orchestra and trained voices and chorus.

Part of the frustration for standard opera goers who were non-Pumpkinites was that there were no customary supertitles. Nor were there lyrics—or even a sheet with song titles—provided in the printed program. Having mostly to sing in other languages, opera singers are known more for their sound than for their diction. Thus, words, which to many are the cornerstone of what constitutes rock music, were largely obscured.

Ironically, it took the rocker coming onstage to the applause of a rock star for lyrics to become more discernible, as Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, sans guitar, launched into “Thirty-Three.” Everyone else was wearing a variation of classical concert attire but Corgan, sporting a long, black, sparkly Gothic tunic with wide lapels and a microphone in hands, had the distinctive appearance of a swinging Nosferatu.

Corgan, of course, has decades of experience having audiences of all sizes eat out of the palm of his hand. His command of the stage during his all too few appearances was the highlight of the evening.

His signature scratchy and nasal-like singing voice that became an aural pop-culture icon during the nineties has aged well. There is even more resonance present.

Lest anyone have thought that Corgan might be the vocal odd man out for so nakedly performing directly alongside a quartet of trained voices, the five voices blended wonderfully well. It helps that these are Corgan’s songs, of course, but his exquisite if quirky phrasing provided momentum in what were often rather metronomic rhythmic renditions by the others.

Special mention must be made of the Lyric Opera Chorus, which was onstage all evening and singing throughout. Sometimes in accompanying support or for effect, sometimes a cappella, sometimes taking an entire number, as they did in “Stumbleine.”

For those of any genre mulling over what any of this meant, there were constant and clever Chicago-themed, multilayered Monty Python-like animations by Greg Emetaz at the rear of the stage to contemplate.

“A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness” runs through November 30 at the Lyric Opera House, 20 North Wacker (at Madison). For more information and tickets, visit lyricopera.org.