Opera Pacific cancels rest of season amid money woes

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The economic crunch has swallowed Opera Pacific’s 2008-2009 season after a single production, ‘The Barber of Seville.’ The two remaining operas, ‘The Grapes of Wrath,’ a new work by Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie, and Richard Strauss’ ‘Salome,’ with Deborah Voigt (left) in the title role, will not be staged, the company announced Tuesday. The reason: a drop in donations -- on which it relies for 60% of its revenue.

‘Many of our large donors were less able to support us at the levels they have over the past few years,’ president Robert C. Jones said in a statement. That made it impossible for the company to raise enough to keep the season going at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Jones said the financial crisis also has led to a ‘substantial’ reduction in staff, and that the company put its 20,000 square-foot office, rehearsal and workshop space in Santa Ana up for sale in hopes of raising enough cash to continue the season. ‘The building has not yet sold, and therefore we have lost the race with time,’ Jones said.

The company, plagued with deficits during most of this decade, tried to reduce expenses in recent years, spending $7 million in 2006-07, compared with more than $8 million in some earlier seasons, according to its most recent available tax return on GuideStar.org. The result in 2006-07 was a $1.3 million surplus, which Opera Pacific used to help pay down debts. Still, the company was carrying $2 million in loans from its officers and board members on its books.

UPDATE: We have since learned that the $2 million loan referred to in the opera company’s 2006-07 tax form as coming from officers and board members was made by Sebastian Paul Musco, chairman of its board, and that he later forgave the loan as part of a fundraising campaign.

-- Mike Boehm