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  • Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand by Nicholas Vazsonyi
  • Sanna Pederson
Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand. By Nicholas Vazsonyi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Pp 236. Paper $35.99. ISBN 978-1107404397.

In order to cope with an addition to the immense literature on Wagner, the scholar's mind must go through a series of automatic sorting functions. Because this particular composer has always been so controversial, one of the first sortings has to do with whether the author is a "friend" of Wagner or "foe." Reviews of Vazsonyi's book thus far, including those for the German translation (Richard Wagner. Die Entstehung einer Marke, trans. Michael Halfbrodt [Würzburg, 2012]), have generally emphasized a fresh, new viewpoint, as opposed to one tending towards apology or critique. This first classification attempt, then, seems to be unhelpful. Another basic sorting function is to place the author in relation to other authorities. Nicholas Vazsonyi, as a professor of German Studies, is by definition not a member of the musicological Wagner establishment. This seems to indicate a shift of disciplinary boundaries from the understanding of Wagner primarily from a musicological perspective, with cultural studies as an ancillary venue. The book's title resists easy classification as well. Although it announces the study of the promotion of a brand, Vazsonyi does not draw extensively on the relatively new academic fields of advertising, travel, and leisure studies. Rather, his approach is informed, broadly speaking, by the Frankfurt School critique of the culture industry. He is more interested in art "on the market" as one of the defining conditions of modernity rather than analyzing cost-benefit margins in terms of actual numbers. More recent work by Pierre Bourdieu and Friedrich Kittler is used effectively to add nuance to the understanding of the marketplace of art in terms of sociology and media studies. Vazsonyi mentions in the book's Epilogue that he considers Nietzsche the most important critic of Wagner, and even attributes to Nietzsche "the main thrust of this book" (206). Although some of the vocabulary may be new, then, the book's basic aim is part of a long tradition, starting with Nietzsche, of trying to understand Wagner as the very incarnation of modernity. Vazsonyi's appropriation of "product placement," "infomercial," "package deal" and other terms [End Page 702] is used for shock value, to highlight the distasteful quandary of the modern artist: that high art must be marketed.

Art consumers determine the value of the artwork, whether it is "worth it"—not only in terms of money, but also other economies (such as time and effort). This was recognized as a problem starting in the late eighteenth century. Once high art came into clearer focus by distinguishing itself as not popular, it followed that material profit must disqualify a work from the art world, which values only intrinsic qualities. Therefore, the only market strategy for art could be an antimarket strategy.

What Vazsonyi demonstrates brilliantly is how Wagner was able to promote and sell his work without appearing to do so. He lays out compelling evidence for his argument that "Wagner's passionate critique of modernity did not prevent him from taking advantage of the very conditions he criticized" (185). For instance, Wagner vehemently rejected music criticism and insisted that the audience was much better off trusting their own impressions rather than being educated by experts. But Wagner's dawning awareness of marketing opportunities included the widespread publicity possible through print media. Despite his own position that the work could speak for itself, Wagner did try to explain his work, over and over, in books, pamphlets, journal articles, short stories, program notes and more. Further, he enlisted admirers as publicity agents. They carried out media blitzes of unprecedented magnitude in the musical press at critical points in his career and allowed him to function more as the object of attention than its creator. Once plans for Bayreuth started taking concrete shape, Wagner was similarly able to distance himself from the commercial aspect of the enterprise by making a show of delegating to a PR "strategist" or "manager" (186).

Vazsonyi analyzes Wagner's various...

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