This past spring found Santa Fe's summer performing arts groups tracking income and spending reports daily, closely and nervously, with many a gulp into the bargain. The economic barometer, long depressed, was looking worse as the recession continued, and frequently revised attendance and donation projections veered between cautious optimism and blue funk.

Would the June-through-August performance season produce enough much-needed tourist and local ticket revenue to balance the books? Or would the countrywide belt-tightening bring universal wallet-closing? The Santa Fe Opera, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale were all wondering, planning and finger-crossing.

Now, in the first days of October, the gloomy atmosphere has lifted. Things aren't perfect, times are still tough, and fingers still have to be kept in dikes as well as crossed. But in general, all three groups came through the waves on an even keel and without losing their creative or financial cargo.

"All in all, the season went very, very well," said SFO general director Charles MacKay. "Attendance was down slightly from last year, by 3.7 percent: We had a total overall attendance of 80,989. But we also had the highest attendance at the apprentice artists' concerts in our history."

Ticket sales for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, were originally projected at $8.3 million, then adjusted downward several times. A total of $7.75 million was actually taken in, MacKay said, adding that SFO compensated for its reduced ticket income goal with hefty expense cuts.

Subscription income was up slightly from 2008, group and single tickets sales were down, and purchases from New Mexico residents were up by about 200 tickets. In contrast, around 3,000 fewer tickets were purchased by out-of-state buyers this season than in 2008, though all 50 states were again represented.

"When we drilled down into the numbers, the most significant change patterns came with group sales for senior citizens from Arizona and Florida, which represented spending cutbacks for those on fixed incomes," MacKay pointed out. "California and Texas sales generally decreased, while Colorado, Illinois and New York sales increased.

"International buyers were down 1.8 percent, which was just a fraction from 2008. But I'm not sure they were really down. Many people here buy tickets for international visitors in advance."

There were few real surprises in how individual operas did at the box office, MacKay said. As expected, Verdi's La Traviata, starring superstar soprano Natalie Dessay, exceeded hopes.

"We sold 101 percent of capacity because we added folding chairs between the two main floor sections in the theater, and they were all sold," he said. "We sold all turnbacks immediately. I think we could have sold one or two performances more. Natalie was a sensational draw for us."

Donizetti's tuneful, comic The Elixir of Love did not do as well as hoped, coming in at 87 percent of capacity. MacKay said, "It's one of those borderline top-box-office operas. I think our experience was consistent with what other companies have experienced: Unless you have Luciano Pavarotti singing Nemorino, I don't think it's in the top sales realm."

The revival of the 2004 production of Mozart's Don Giovanni came in at a healthy 94 percent of capacity, and the SFO-commissioned The Letter, by Paul Moravec and Terry Teachout was around 88 percent — not at all bad for a new opera. But the company premiere of Gluck's Alceste underperformed expectations, reaching only 77 percent of audience capacity.

"I really expected Alceste to do a little bit better at the box office," MacKay said. "I think part of it might just be the unfamiliarity with Gluck. Part of it may have been the production itself," which was not popular with all opera-goers due to its avant-garde staging and use of dancers and mimes in virtually every scene — intrusively, some thought.

Given the tough economic climate as the year progressed, SFO's original 2008-2009 budget of $18 million was reduced to just over $16 million, with consequent income and expense adjustments. However, overall board giving was "very solid," MacKay said, though gifts from individuals were down slightly. Thanks to the recent stock market rebound, the company also anticipates a $2 million distribution from its endowment, slightly down from the $2.4 million originally projected. Earlier in the fiscal year, the endowment had dropped to a point where no distributions could be made.

When everything is wound up, "It looks like in the end, we will be in the black," MacKay said. "I'm touching wood as I say that."

Much the same story was reported by Steven Ovitsky, executive director of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Don Scott Carpenter, general director of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale.

"We anticipated ticket income of $495,000 originally, adjusted our goal to $435,000, and came in at $447,000," Ovitsky said. "Throughout, we were very conservative in spending, and aggressive in ticket sales and fundraising. Our fiscal year doesn't end until the end of October, but we're projecting to be solidly in the black. It will be our fifth year in a row of having an operating surplus."

A new CMF program this summer offered New Mexico residents 50 percent off on tickets for weekday concerts in the Lensic Performing Arts Center, and the results were positive, Ovitsky said. "It brought in a few hundred extra people."

Asked if Lensic concerts have been seeing a drop in attendance, he said, "Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It's hard to know what causes it. This summer, there were bigger numbers in the midweek concerts and very slightly down numbers for the final Sunday and Monday.

"Is that attributable to the fact that (violinist) Pinchas Zukerman was not here this year? Maybe, but it was a very small number of tickets. On the other hand, the final Saturday night in the Lensic, an all-Bach program, was a couple of hundred people larger than in 2008."

Even if the 800-seat Lensic doesn't always sell out, it still makes sense to do concerts there as well as in the 425-seat St. Francis Auditorium, Ovitsky said. "The issue is not selling 800 seats. It's how many above the capacity of St. Francis you sell. Selling 600 seats in the Lensic is 150 percent of St. Francis, though only 75 percent of the Lensic. For me, it's the actual numbers of seats and dollars that count.

"The fact is, we sold less in tickets than we did last year, but we budgeted to be even lower than what we actually took in. It's a question of meeting goals, not how much more can you do."

For the chorale, the 2009 summer season exceeded expectations, Carpenter reported. The group made its ticket sales goal plus 6 percent — quite an achievement given that the 2008 season's sales were low, and that the organization faced a $200,000 deficit last fall. But in just 12 months, thanks to expense cuts, aggressive fundraising, and the summer's ticket-sales success, the debt has been cut to under $50,000.

"Individual giving is up significantly this year, and we have basically whittled away almost all of our debts," Carpenter said. "We are being very conscious about money: We just started budgeting for 2010, using real numbers for the last 12 months as a guide."

The chorale venues offered interesting contrasts in sales this year. All the concerts in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi exceeded 100 percent of goal, thanks to conservative projections. On the other hand, the Loretto Chapel concerts were between 15 percent and 20 percent underbudget, Carpenter said.

"Was it because it was so hot in the chapel, or people thought the (Shakespeare texts) program was too different for their taste? Or did they think, we've been to Loretto before, we don't want to go this year? Loretto is one of our favorite places to perform, but we have to look at this (trend)."

Two concerts in the Scottish Rite Center sold well. So did a repertoire of Hispanic music in the Santuario de Guadalupe, the chorale's original performing home. The season finale concert, which included famed mezzo-soprano Susan Graham singing with the ensemble, reached a whopping 173 percent of budget, with virtually every seat in the cathedral filled, Carpenter said. "The idea of a finale, with different repertoire from the concerts performed on a closing concert, is very strong. Some world-class singers attended that concert and said later they'd like to do something like it with us in the future."

New music director Joshua Habermann's artistic ability and engaging personality had a lot to do with the chorale's summer success, Carpenter said, as did the very fine choral ensemble Habermann chose. "The conversations of concern we had in the first part of the year have been trumped by praise of the artistic product. We had two years of difficult transition, but now we're at where we wanted to be." The chorale's fiscal year ends Dec. 31, right after its series of holiday concert performances, "and we're forecasting to be in the black," he added.

Despite the current hopeful outlook, all three administrators stressed that things are going to remain challenging for the foreseeable future, and that nonprofit organizations need donor and ticket-buyer support more than ever. "Getting through the year successfully," Carpenter said, "is just one stop along the road."

Contact Craig Smith at 986-3038, csmith@sfnewmexican.com.