It started on Sept. 15.

That was the day investment giant Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection and the Dow fell 504 points.

And it was the day ticket sales began to flat-line for the Sacramento Philharmonic.

"Up until then, we were very happy with ticket sales. We were ahead of the game," said Mark Feldman, the orchestra's executive director.

The economic downturn has been biting into ticket sales for many orchestras, choruses and opera companies statewide – and gutting sales for a few others.

The board of Orange County's Opera Pacific canceled the final two operas of its 23rd season, blaming a dearth of contributions. The company is likely to close.

At the Orchestras of Pasadena – a merger of the Pasadena Symphony and Pasadena Pops – three Pasadena Pops concerts and one symphony concert have been canceled, and its remaining pops concerts are in peril.

The problem isn't limited to California: At the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, the highly anticipated revival of John Corigliano's "The Ghosts of Versailles" was scrapped and replaced by a less costly production of Verdi's "La Traviata."

"There is a trend of softening ticket sales, and it's not just confined to the region or statewide, but nationally," said Paul Jan Zdunek, president and chief executive of the Modesto Symphony, and soon to be executive director of the Orchestras of Pasadena.

The Modesto orchestra saw its best season of ticket sales last year. A large part of that was due to the fact that it was the first year for the $40 million Gallo Center for the Arts.

"Tickets sales have been less this year than what we expected, but they are still better than what most people are doing. We're doing medium-well," Zdunek said.

Currently, no major regional orchestra finds itself in straits so dire that it is considering cutting back on concerts. Nonetheless, sales of single tickets are suffering in Sacramento and up and down the Central Valley.

Opera companies, symphonies and choruses typically begin budgetary retrenchment by cutting spending on personnel and marketing, discounting tickets, or presenting tried-and-true music selections.

At Sacramento's Camellia Symphony, Executive Director Roberta McClellan has made several moves to reduce costs.

"We cut expenses in administration and marketing in order to tighten up the budget," she said. "For this past concert, we spent 30 percent less in advertising dollars than in previous seasons."

The symphony has retained its 324 season subscriptions. But at its most recent concert, on Nov. 8, the orchestra drew roughly 800 patrons. Average attendance last season was 1,000.

If the advertising budget hadn't been reduced, McClellan says, the gap might not be so great.

Ticket sales as of Sept. 1 were 15 percent ahead of projections at the Sacramento Philharmonic. They had locked in nearly 1,000 subscribers, and the goal of 1,100 seemed easily within reach, said executive director Feldman.

"Then the first couple of weeks of the month came, and our ticket sales basically flat-lined," he said. "It's very, very blatant how the telephones were silenced after the 15th."

"People right now are holding their breath," Feldman continued. "I really think that the lag in regular ticket sales is due to the downturn. And the next few months are going to be very difficult."

The economic slump coincided with the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra's move to the Mondavi Center at the University of California, Davis. The organization has matched the 250 subscribers it tallied for performances at the Community Center Theater in Sacramento last year, said James McCormick, president of the SCSO.

But its attendance numbers are down.

"We had 800 people attend our last performance," said McCormick. "We were down at least 300 audience members."

McCormick attributed the drop to the economy as well as the longer drive to the Mondavi and the change to Sunday concerts from long-standing Saturday performances.

Having weathered past downturns, many orchestras, opera companies and choruses have moved over the years to acutely tune in to what their audiences say they want to hear. They don't necessarily eschew ambitious or less-accessible work, but they try to ensure there's a healthy dose of favorites.

Call Bee arts critic Edward Ortiz, (916) 321-1071.