On today’s date in 1850, the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt conducted in Weimar the first performance of “Lohengrin,” a new opera by the German composer Richard Wagner.

Liszt was determined to make Weimar famous, musically-speaking, despite the rather provincial nature of the forces he had at his disposal. For the “Lohengrin” premiere Liszt had to go out and buy a bass-clarinet, since the Court orchestra didn’t own one, and he beefed up the number of violins from the usual 11 players to a grand total of 18.

As for the singers, they were hardly world-famous superstars. The title role of Lohengrin was sung by a local tenor named Karl Beck, who had also been a pastry cook in Weimar, and would later return to that profession as a master baker in Vienna. Even so, Liszt’s unprecedented 46 rehearsals apparently paid off: the premiere of “Lohengrin” was a big success, and helped put both Weimar and Wagner on the map.

Ironically, Wagner himself was unable to attend the premiere of his new opera. He was a wanted man on German soil, having participated in the unsuccessful Dresden uprising of 1849, and there was a warrant out for his arrest on the charge of high treason. Liszt had helped him escape to Switzerland, and while his opera was being staged in Weimar, Wagner himself was at hotel in Lucerne, listening in his imagination, he later told Liszt, as each scene unfolded.