Leading up to the event, tickets weren’t selling as fast as some would hope. It’s rumored that you could buy tickets to see Kanye’s coveted production for just twenty bucks the day of. The original selling price was $150, which made the less expensive ticket price an incredible way to kick off Black Friday sales.
Kanye’s golden invite
While that may have been good news for fans, they were left frustrated when the opera did not begin on time. While the show was set to start at 4PM, the Los Angeles Times reported that Kanye and the performers weren’t ready for over two hours, setting the starting time to after 6PM. The gates were opened at 1:30; I truly feel bad for those who excitedly headed over to the Hollywood Bowl early to see Kanye.
The LA Times also claim that the whole opera only lasted roughly 50 minutes, much less than the time fans waited for it to begin. If you didn’t want to make the journey to the Hollywood Bowl, the opera was also available via Tidal, a streaming site.
It was clear why the opera began late… no one was ready for the stage. Even those streaming the production were able to get a glimpse of some of the actors/choir members reading from their physical scripts. There was even a moment where Kanye had to repeat himself in order for the star of the show to take his stage directions and fall. After Kanye realized that Wes wasn’t going to do so, he kept going with the script.
Some fans also took to Twitter to comment on Kanye’s writing for the play. Just before the play was originally set to begin, Kanye began tweeting out multiple pages from the Bible’s Book of Daniel. One user tweeted, “STOP GIVING AWAY YOUR SCRIPT.”
Granted, I’m sure this production would have been amazing if Kanye gave himself more than a week to prepare. Kanye debuted his golden invitation to his opera via Twitter on November 17, leaving the icon little time to polish his script and prepare his actors and choir.
Did anyone attend the opera or check it out online? What are your thoughts on it? Let us know in the comments!
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Amber Cavazos