Once, I having been assured by hundreds of more or less trustworthy persons, he [Albert Niemann] possessed a magnificent voice; an organ of inimitable beauty and power... Ere I first heard him sing, he had sacrificed that priceless gift of Nature to Wagner and conviviality. I only know him, in his public capacity, as the finest tragic and romantic actor living of those connected with the lyric drama, as a man of extraordinary, splendid physique and noble bearing, and as an exceptionally accomplished musician.