New York Times - Lohengrin {53} Metropolitan Opera House: 03/5/1890

The performance of "Lohengrin" at the Metropolitan Opera House last evening was attended by a very large and enthusiastic audience. It was a performance which had so many merits that it did not deserve to be spoiled, at it was, by certain lamentable defects. Can any one explain why it is that whenever Herr Perotti meets with any small measure of success in a Wagner rôle he promptly proceeds to transform himself into Signor Perotti, and to Italianize the part to the best of his ability The public recently witnessed his painful attempt to change the rugged hero of the Volsungs, Siegmund, into an Italian opera gentleman, and last night he did his best to makeover the solemn and high-minded Knight of the Grail into a mincing medieval lover, piping his sentimental roundelays at Elsa. A sentimental Lohengrin, a smiling, simpering Lohengrin - think of it!