Lyric Opera of the North begins its season with a double bill of operatic one-acts combining the tragedy of Pietro Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” with the comedy of Giacomo Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi.”

In its quest to apparently never be seen in the same venue twice, LOON has settled upon the Superior High School Performing Arts Center, which offers not only an orchestra pit for conductor Keith Swanson’s two-dozen musicians but great sound for the orchestra and the singers.

“Cavalleria Rusticana,” set on an Easter Sunday in a 19th-century Sicilian village, finds peasant girl Santuzza (Vicki Fingalson) as the fourth wheel on a love triangle. Turridu (Andrew Oakden), a soldier, has returned from the war and taken her honor, only for Santuzza to find he is now seeing Lola (Katelyn Olaf), the girl he left behind, who married Alfio (Calland Metts), a village teamster.

Fingalson cuts a figure of pathos, even before she begins to sing, and her voice carries her pain out to the audience. Oakden’s big voice provides a ringing indifference to her plight. Both are making their LOON debuts, and made for a powerful pairing.

There are supertitles providing the lyrics for both shows, and I appreciate the effort, but there is something to be said for just enjoying the singing when Fingalson begs Oakden to come back to her. Besides, I can promise you there will come a point in their powerful duet when you are going to forget the words and just let the emotions wash over you.

The processional into the church was positively Zeffirelli-like, by which I mean that as stage director, Metts has put as many people and as much pageantry on stage as he can muster, which ended up being close to four dozen bodies.

The famous Intermezzo offers the innovation of a charming little dance, choreographed by Rebecca Katz Harwood, and performed by Suzanne Kritzberg and Reinhard Von Rabenau of the Minnesota Ballet.

With “Gianni Schicchi,” which was sung in English, Puccini proves he can do comedy as well as tragic opera, mainly by continuing to embrace the conventions of the form, albeit in a wickedly skewed context.

Buoso Donati has died, and his family learns his will leaves them nothing, which leads them to seek help from Gianni Schicchi, (Jeffrey Madison), who would like to provide his daughter, Lauretta (Rachel Inselman) with a dowry so that she can marry Rinuccio (Marcus McConico).

Heading the cavalcade of comic characters concerned with who is fighting to get the mansion, the mule and the sawmill are Jill Hoffman as Zita, Paul Waterman as Simone and Hunter Jaakola as Gherardino.

Like many, I knew “O mio babbino caro” only from the movie “A Room with a View.” When Inselman launched into it, I wanted to laugh out loud, because I never knew that one of the most delicately beautiful arias in opera was intended to be so wonderfully ironic.

But then irony abounds in a night at the opera where the only corpse on stage ends up being in the comedy and not the tragedy. It just so happens that I really, really like irony.