Kanye West’s opera: 11 tweets that sum up what music critics and fans really thought

26 November 2019, 17:45 | Updated: 26 November 2019, 18:01

Kanye West’s first ‘opera’, Nebuchadnezzar, premiered at Hollywood Bowl on the weekend – and the reviews are in.

Kanye West’s first opera premiered at Hollywood Bowl on the weekend, and people were always bound to have their say.

Now, the official reviews for Nebuchadnezzar are in and they’re… mixed.

The New York Times questions whether Nebuchadnezzar is even an opera at all – Classical Music Editor, Zachary Woolfe says it’s really more of an oratorio in his review titled “Kanye West Is Operatic. His Opera Isn’t” (and has a few other rather honest things to say about it).

The Guardian gives it two stars out of five (ooch), and describes it as having “ramshackle delivery, halting Bible readings and a thunderous choir”.

Meanwhile, Paul Thompson at Rolling Stone called it “too muddled and off-the-cuff to work as a narrative piece, too linear to read as a performance installation.”

Read more: Watch video clips from Kanye West’s first ever opera ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ >

Why are people saying Kanye West’s opera is actually an oratorio?

An oratorio is defined by Grove Dictionary of Music as “An extended musical setting of a sacred text made up of dramatic, narrative and contemplative elements”.

Whereas, “most narrowly conceived, the word ‘opera’ signifies a drama in which the actors and actresses sing throughout.”

According to these definitions – and our understanding of Bach’s Passions versus, say, Verdi’s La Traviata, we have to say we’re inclined to agree. Yeezy’s production is based on a Biblical story, full of Biblical readings, and features chorus passages heavily.

And very generally speaking, oratorios err towards the sacred, and operas towards the secular. That might also be why reviewers and tweeters are landing on the conclusion that Yeezy has mis-identified the genre of his own work...

Whether Nebuchadnezzar is technically an opera, an oratorio, or something else altogether, we enjoyed seeing glimpses of the new piece of the weekend.

Here’s what Twitter had to say about the first work of this kind from “the greatest artist that God has ever created” below:

1. Opera or oratorio?

   yeah, this is an oratorio. sorry, Ye. #Nebuchadnezzar

   — Dr. Imani Mosley (@imanimosley) November 25, 2019

2. These guys are both proud, but unsure why...

   I don’t even know what I watched but I’m proud of Kanye #Nebuchadnezzar #newwaters pic.twitter.com/aV5ELDzndB

   — Reggie Jagers III (@KingJagers) November 25, 2019

3. ... x2.

   I don’t even know what I watched but I’m so proud of Kanye. #Nebuchadnezzar pic.twitter.com/jJCJTCTK1x

   — Hotep Jesus (@HotepJesus) November 25, 2019

4. Think this means she liked it...

   speechless. #Nebuchadnezzar #TIDAL 🔥 pic.twitter.com/WYC1fKhV5p

   — abbs. (@abbmatic) November 25, 2019

5. Yeezy forgot to do his Latin homework

   Rex gloriae? WHERE IS THIS LATIN COMING FROM? #Nebuchadnezzar

   — Dr. Imani Mosley (@imanimosley) November 25, 2019

6. ... but is acing Bible studies.

   So I have found the part of the Bible that Kanye has been reading from, and I am following along like a 1st grader.
   
   Can't believe I am reading a Bible and watching a Christian Opera on a Sunday night, RATHER than watching football. #Nebuchadnezzar

   — CJ (@chadjustin98) November 25, 2019

7. Turns out Ye didn’t need Latin after all.

   i don’t know who needs to hear this but you don’t have to use Latin text to make things sound like Classical Music™️ #Nebuchadnezzar

   — turkey lurkey georgie (@absolutment) November 25, 2019

8. Touché.

   The true power of Kanye West is getting all of Twitter to learn how to spell #Nebuchadnezzar

   — Steve Was Here (@SeeSteve) November 25, 2019

9. These guys don’t mince words...

   This is bad!!!! Beautiful voices are not enough to save it. And the performance started more than 2 hours late. Also, why are they singing in Latin, a language which didn’t exist for 700 years after Neb’s death, and that in a completely different continent? #Nebuchadnezzar #Kanye

   — Vox Operae (@voxoperae) November 25, 2019

10. Ahh

    Tonight at the #Nebuchadnezzar over 17,000 people raised their hands to God. It was a magical moment being there. @kanyewest thank you.

    — Phillip (@prioremtempus) November 25, 2019

11. WELL, there’s late, and there’s late.

    Oh my god, the Kanye opera (again, oratorio!) was not even an hour long. After starting more than two hours late.

    — Josh Barone (@joshbarone) November 25, 2019