[...] A certain Herr Séroff, who was at the first two performances of Lohengrin, has come to Lucerne expressly to see me. His accounts (he is a connoisseur and very intelligent) agree very largely with yours. He is enchanted with Tichatschek and Mitterwurzer, but he will not hear of Mme. Ney—she fits the part of Elsa as the fist fits the eye—she looks coarse and common—she has a peculiar malicious look all the time and her acting is ridiculous. Dearest Minna, this accords only too well with my own acquaintance with this singer, and even through your praise of her performance, I can see how you are forcing yourself—for good reasons—to overlook much that is offensive. Accordingly I feel that Dresden has failed to give me an Elsa, and that means a great deal. As to the orchestra, Séroff tells me that the wind were excellent but that the strings played flat and without spirit. That agrees with what Draeseke also told me about the present standard of the orchestra. The tempi are said to have frequently been very false, and the cuts I have been told of, such as that at the close of Act I. and in the duet in Act III., are so stupid, outrageous and fatal that I find it difficult as yet to write to Tichatschek, for I should not like to repay his otherwise fine performance by promptly scolding him for approving such cuts, or perhaps even suggesting them. What you write about Mitterwurzer has really done me good, for I consider him the most really talented and the nearest to me of all the singers I know. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 421