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GREENSBORO — Short on money and on time to raise more, Greensboro Opera has canceled this season’s planned performance of Giacomo Puccini’s “La Bohème” and will lay off staff to cut costs.

It will mark only the second year in its 30-year history that the nonprofit opera company has not staged a full operatic production.

“We are not happy,” opera board President Bert Davis Jr. said Tuesday. “But we can count, and if the money is not there, it’s not there.”

The company aims to present “La Bohème” in November 2012 — if it can raise the money to finance the production.

Presenting the opera with singers, sets, costumes, lighting and Greensboro Symphony Orchestra musicians will cost about $160,000, Davis said. The board projected selling about $50,000 in tickets, leaving about $110,000 to raise.

Davis admitted to feeling trepidation, adding, “I think there is a chance we won’t be able to raise the money. How big a chance, I don’t know. We have to secure new sources and new donors.”

Other nonprofit arts groups have struggled to finance their work in a tight economy.

The North Carolina Shakespeare Festival in High Point won’t present “Twelfth Night” this fall because of a cut in state support. But it will stage “A Christmas Carol” in December and plans more shows for the 2012-13 season.

The opera company had planned to stage “La Bohème” in November at War Memorial Auditorium as part of its 30th anniversary.

But it couldn’t raise enough money to finance the show, and it didn’t want to incur debt. So last month, the board chose to postpone the production and hope to reschedule it in the spring of 2012.

On Monday night, the board canceled that plan.

Not only was there little time to find corporate donors, but scheduling posed a problem, Davis said.

To fit the schedules of the conductor, cast, musicians and the venue, the opera would have been presented in late May, competing with graduations and other end-of-season arts events.

If the company staged a spring performance, it would have been in the same position next summer — trying to raise money for a November 2012 show. Canceling the spring show “gives us a year to plan for November 2012, which is what we really need to do it right,” Davis said.

To save money, the company will lay off office staff — executive director Barbara A. Peters and company manager Elena DeAngelis — after Sept. 15 and rely on office volunteers for several months.

Once the company has money, it will add back office staff later next year, Davis said.

Greensboro Opera has a 30th anniversary celebration fundraiser set for Sept. 9, and will plan other fundraising events leading up to the November 2012 performance.

It also will present its Opera at the Carolina performances for Guilford County fifth-graders in February.

“Just because we are not doing 'La Bohème’ this year doesn’t mean that Greensboro Opera is closing the doors,” Davis said.

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com