The premiere of the opera Lohengrin was held on the 28th of August 1850 in Weimar. It was conducted by Ferencz Liszt, Wagner’s close friend. It was he who had contributed to the staging of the opera, completed two years earlier. Wagner could not be present at the event: his stormy social temperament led him to the barricades of the German revolution in 1848–1849, after which, thanks to a happy coincidence, he found a shelter in Switzerland using false documents and was there on the day of the premiere. While sitting in one of the hotels in Lucerne and watching at the clock, the composer tried to time the performance…