Opera Pacific sings about subscribers

Opera Pacific will open its 17th season Tuesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center with Puccini’s “La Boheme,” a change in the executive team, a deficit of roughly $1 million (of an $8-million budget) and a drop in individual ticket buyers. But it also has a rise in subscribers.

Patricia Houk, director of production for 22 years at Houston Grand Opera, has taken the same post with Opera Pacific, replacing Mitchell Krieger, who held the position since 1998 and left in late August. Assistant conductor Kelly Kou will become artistic administrator in addition to his conducting duties. John DeMain and Martin Hubbard remain artistic director and executive director, respectively. Hubbard said the management structure change was made to spread the duties more efficiently.

Hubbard attributed the deficit to a falloff in single ticket sales following the events of Sept. 11. Single-ticket sales for the new season remain sluggish, he said, although there has been enough demand to add a sixth performance of “La Boheme” (on Wednesday) to the usual run of five. Subscription sales have risen 14% so far, from 7,074 to about 8,096.

-- Chris Pasles