Ludwig II of Bavaria portrayed as Lohengrin below a moon with Wagners face.
Sung in Italian, Campanini portrayed the title role with Christina Nilsson as Elsa, Emmy Fursch-Madi as Ortrud, Giuseppe Kaschmann as Telramund, Franco Novara as Heinrich, and Auguste Vianesi conducting. The Metropolitan Opera mounted the opera for the first time on 7 November 1883 during the company's inaugural season. The opera's first performance in Australia took place at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Melbourne on 18 August 1877. Auguste Vianesi conducted the performance, which featured Ernesto Nicolini as Lohengrin, Emma Albani as Elsa, Anna D'Angeri as Ortruda, Maurel as Friedrich, and Wladyslaw Seideman as Heinrich. The United Kingdom premiere of Lohengrin took place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on using the Italian translation by Marchesi. La Scala produced the opera for the first time the following month on 30 March with Campanini as Lohengrin, Gabrielle Krauss as Elsa, Philippine von Edelsberg as Ortrud, Victor Maurel as Friedrich, and Gian Pietro Milesi as Heinrich. Eduard Nápravník conducted the performance which featured Fyodor Petrovich Komissarzhevsky as Lohengrin, Yuliya Platonova as Elsa, Daria Leonova as Ortrud, and Osip Petrov as Heinrich der Vogler. Lohengrin's Russian premiere took place at the Mariinsky Theatre on 5 February 1873 in a double billing with the premiere of three scenes from Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov (the Inn Scene, Scene in Marina's Boudoir, and Scene in the Garden of Mniszech's Castle). The performance on 9 November was attended by Giuseppe Verdi, who annotated a copy of the vocal score with his impressions and opinions of Wagner (this was almost certainly his first exposure to Wagner's music). Angelo Mariani conducted the performance, which starred Italo Campanini as Lohengrin, Bianca Blume as Elsa, Maria Löwe Destin as Ortrud, Pietro Silenzi as Telramund, and Giuseppe Galvani as Heinrich der Vogler. It was notably the first performance of any Wagner opera in Italy. The first performance in Italy took place seven months later at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna on 1 November 1871 in an Italian translation by operatic baritone Salvatore Marchesi. Conducted by Adolf Neuendorff, the cast included Theodor Habelmann as Lohengrin, Luise Garay-Lichtmay as Elsa, Marie Frederici as Ortrud, Adolf Franosch as Heinrich and Edward Vierling as Telramund. The United States premiere of Lohengrin took place at the Stadt Theater at the Bowery in New York City on 3 April 1871.
The Belgian premiere of the opera was given at La Monnaie on 22 March 1870 with Étienne Troy as Friedrich of Telramund and Feliciano Pons as Heinrich der Vogler. Mallinger sang Elsa again for the work's premiere at the Berlin State Opera's on 6 April 1869. The work was produced in Munich for the first time at the National Theatre on 16 June 1867 with Heinrich Vogl in the title role and Mathilde Mallinger as Elsa. The Austrian premiere took place at the Burgtheater on 19 August 1859 with Róza Csillag as Ortrud.
The opera's first performance abroad was in Riga on 5 February 1855. Liszt chose the date in honour of Weimar's most famous citizen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was born on 28 August 1749. Performance historyThe first production of Lohengrin was in Weimar, Germany on 28 August 1850 at the Staatskapelle Weimar under the direction of Franz Liszt, a close friend and early supporter of Wagner. The most popular and recognizable part of the opera is the Bridal Chorus, better known as "Here Comes the Bride", once often played as a processional at weddings in the West. It was King Ludwig's patronage that later gave Wagner the means and opportunity to compose, build a theatre for, and stage his epic cycle, the Ring of the Nibelung. 'Der Märchenkönig' ('The Fairy-tale King') as he was dubbed later built his ideal fairy-tale castle and dubbed it "New Swan Stone," or "Neuschwanstein", after the Swan Knight. Among those deeply moved by the fairy-tale opera was the young King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The opera has proved inspirational towards other works of art. It is part of the Knight of the Swan tradition. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself inspired by the epic of Garin le Loherain. By Luigi Speranza for "Gli Operai" is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850.