New Jersey Lyric Opera’s year of debuts is shaping up to be monumental. With three new opera productions already under their belt, they will plunge headfirst into the busy fall season with three more. For founder and artistic director John Calkins, the midpoint marks an adventurous new phase in the company’s development that focuses on expansion.

This month, he will direct and stage company premieres of two popular Italian melodramas: Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” Nov. 12 at the 1867 Sanctuary in Ewing; and Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca,” Nov. 19 at the Ogden Auditorium in Chatham. Both are passionate tales of love, jealousy, deception and betrayal that tragically end in self-sacrifice and murder.