Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on the backside. One cannot judge 'Lohengrin' from a first hearing, and I certainly do not intend to hear it a second time. Give me a laundry-list and I'll set it to music. Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. Answer them [critics] with silence and indifference. It works better, I assure you, than anger and argument. | 
