Nicholas Vazsonyi: Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand
Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand
There is of course no news that Richard Wagner also was a master of marketing and self-promotion. He worked systematically on building the Richard Wagner brand in a way that, even today, is impressive. Nicholas Vazsonyi has studied Wagner's method in detail in his new book on Cambridge University Press, "Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand".
With a wealth of references Vazsonyi unfolds the story of a genius promoting himself as "the poor German artist" loathing "profit", the true successor of Beethoven, the most German of all, the man representing the artwork of the future.
Wagner promoted himself as the poor in contrast to the inferior composers who composed for profit, the most German of all because this suited his marketing strategies in a time when the Italians dominated the opera world, making a contrast also to the French cultural hegemony at the time. Ideas about German superiority fitted perfectly into Wagner's marketing strategy. Creating or exploiting dichotomies was, and still is, a good marketing principle. Not only Wagner's sworn followers and fans helped him build his remarkable brand, even his emenies had a part in this project. Wagner's presentation of himself as a victim was also important.
Wagner's announcement that he was composing for an audience that did not as yet exist was no doubt a rhetorical stroke of genius. This made his admirers and supporters identify with a noble cause. And how about Wagner's declaration that he was an opera composer who did not compose operas.
Nicholas Vazsonyi's book Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand is the first study to examine the innovative ways in which Wagner made himself a celebrity, promoting himself using every means available: autobiography, journal articles, short stories, newspaper announcements, letters, even his operas themselves. Vazsonyi reveals how Wagner created a niche for his works in the crowded opera market that continues to be unique.
One wonders how Wagner would have developed his brand with the marketing means of our age...