The Departing Dutchman

The curtain goes up on The Flying Dutchman at San Francisco Opera tomorrow night, but without director and designer Petrika Ionesco on hand. It seems the lavishly mustachioed French-Romanian auteur, who made his company debut directing Franco Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac, had the fabled "artistic differences" with David Gockley, who ushered him out of town last week. The remaining work on the set and staging was done by in-house staff, according to SFO spox Jon Finck.