Acknowledgments; A note on translation and style; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Image; 2. Publicity; 3. Niche and branding; 4. Consumers and consumption; 5. Hub; Epilogue: the Wagner industry; Bibliography; Index.
Introduction; 1. Image; 2. Publicity; 3. Niche and branding; 4. Consumers and consumption; 5. Hub; Epilogue: the Wagner industry; Bibliography.
This book examines the innovative ways in which Richard Wagner made himself a celebrity, promoting himself using every means available.
Nicholas Vazsonyi is Jesse Chapman Alcorn Memorial Professor of Foreign Languages and Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of South Carolina. His first book, Lukács Reads Goethe (1997), was followed by two edited volumes, one on German national identity formation between 1750 and 1871 (2000) and the other entitled Wagner's Meistersinger: Performance, History, Representation (2003). Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand recently appeared in German translation as Richard Wagner: Entstehung einer Marke (2012). He is co-organizer with Anno Mungen (University of Bayreuth) of the WagnerWorldWide 2013 project, a series of linked lectures and conferences around the world, to be capped by an edited volume. In 2013, he joined the editorial team of the German journal wagnerspectrum.
"It is ... a cracking good read as we learn about Wagner's
abilities to turn himself into a 'brand' or to act as his own 'PR
agent'. An important book, too, as Vazsonyi foregrounds an aspect
of Wagner we hear too little about, re-aligning a great
19th-century figure through the filter of an avowedly 21st-century
sensibility." --Opera
"...written with panache and élan, conveying with refreshing
brevity a palpable sense of Wagner's indefatigable industry...the
first scholarly text to take seriously Wagner's incessant
self-promotional activity, Mr. Vazsonyi's book assumes considerable
importance not only in musicology but also in the history of
marketing." --Conor Farrington, Wall Street Journal
"The scholarship of Vazsonyi's study is solid; he knows the
literature and is well read in current theory. Despite this, I am
happy to report that his book is largely free of scholarship
jargon. It also is relatively short, especially given the magnitude
of the subject. Most importantly, it offers us a truly novel and
illuminating take on the great, wily magician. This book is a most
welcome addition to the library of literature on Wagner." --The
Wagner Society of New York
'Vazsonyi's rigorous study is marvellously enlightening ...'
--Laura Silverman, whatsonstage.com
"In a series of pithy, highly readable yet thoroughly documented
chapters, Vazsonyi examines the way in which Wagner worked to
develop what we would nowadays call his image..."
-Daniel Snowman,Opera
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