Berlin, on the other hand, in the year of grace 1867, was able to put Tannhaeuser on the boards of the Hofoper with a cast that has never been beaten since that time [...] Of Albert Niemann as Tannhaeuser,Betz as Wolfram, the Voggenhuber as Elizabeth and the younger Grossi as Venus, it might have been surmised with equal vraisemblance — so admirable was their vocal and dramatic impersonation of those characters— either that the parts in question had been expressly written for them by the great Saxon composer, or that they had been specially and providentially created for the exclusive purpose of filling those very roles in an absolutely irreproachable manner.