The festival began on 13 August and lasted until 30th. It consisted of three full "Ring" cycles, all under the baton of Hans Richter. At the end, critical reactions ranged between that of the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, who thought the entire work "divinely composed", and that of the French newspaper "Le Figaro" who called the music "the dream of a lunatic". Wagner himself was far from satisfied; in a letter to Ludwig he denounced the singers Albert Niemann and Franz Betz as "theatrical parasites" and complained that Richter had not got a single tempo correct. Months later, Cosima records, his attitude towards the productions was "Never again, never again!".