Kanye Announces Launch of Christian Opera Show ‘Nebuchadnezzar’

American rapper and recent Christian convert, Kanye West, has announced the launch of his first Biblical opera. The production will tell the story of Old Testament character and monarch of the Babylonian empire, King Nebuchadnezzar.

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West announced the new show on Twitter, revealing that it will debut at the Hollywood Bowl on 24th November, and will feature music by the Sunday Service choir.

Invite artwork by Nick Knight pic.twitter.com/U7IBqe1Gxk

— ye (@kanyewest) November 17, 2019

King Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful leader in Babylonian history, is featured heavily in the Old Testament — particularly in the Book of Daniel. After seizing Jerusalem, the King began to experience terrible dreams and commanded Daniel to interpret them for him.

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Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream consisting of an image made up of differing metals in Daniel 2:31-45CloseDaniel 2:31-45 "In your vision, Your Majesty, you saw standing before you a huge, shining statue of a man. It was a frightening sight. The head of the statue was made of fine gold. Its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze, its legs were iron, and its feet were a combination of iron and baked clay. As you watched, a rock was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. It struck the feet of iron and clay, smashing them to bits. The whole statue was crushed into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold. Then the wind blew them away without a trace, like chaff on a threshing floor. But the rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth. "That was the dream. Now we will tell the king what it means. Your Majesty, you are the greatest of kings. The God of heaven has given you sovereignty, power, strength, and honor. He has made you the ruler over all the inhabited world and has put even the wild animals and birds under your control. You are the head of gold. "But after your kingdom comes to an end, another kingdom, inferior to yours, will rise to take your place. After that kingdom has fallen, yet a third kingdom, represented by bronze, will rise to rule the world. Following that kingdom, there will be a fourth one, as strong as iron. That kingdom will smash and crush all previous empires, just as iron smashes and crushes everything it strikes. The feet and toes you saw were a combination of iron and baked clay, showing that this kingdom will be divided. Like iron mixed with clay, it will have some of the strength of iron. But while some parts of it will be as strong as iron, other parts will be as weak as clay. This mixture of iron and clay also shows that these kingdoms will try to strengthen themselves by forming alliances with each other through intermarriage. But they will not hold together, just as iron and clay do not mix. "During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever. That is the meaning of the rock cut from the mountain, though not by human hands, that crushed to pieces the statue of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God was showing the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its meaning is certain." OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt) . The four metals represent Babylon, Medo-Peria, Greece, and Rome. The different kingdoms represented in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream are often compared to the prophesies of the book of Revelation. Daniel explained to the king that the statue represented four successive kingdoms based upon power and wealth, beginning in Babylon. The stone and mountain signified a kingdom established by God which would never be destroyed nor given to another people.

Even the great King Nebuchadnezzar did not have endless wisdom at his disposal to render the meaning of his dream. “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries,” the kind responded, “for you were able to reveal this mystery” (Daniel 2:47CloseDaniel 2:47 The king said to Daniel, "Truly, your God is the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings, a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this secret." OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt) ).  Daniel prayed, sought wise counsel, remained humble, and trusted God even when he could not see what outcome would be. 

The King was also known for his wild temper and outbursts of rage. In Daniel 3, he commands all the Israelites to bow down and worship him.

“As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up,” the herald proclaimed.

Three of Daniel’s contemporaries, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refused. So, the King heated up a furnace to seven times its regular heat and tossed the men into the flames.

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Incredibly, despite being bound and tossed into the inferno, the group survived. Unscathed, they emerged from the fire and came before the King to show him what the Lord had done. Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and gave thanks for the men’s faithfulness to God and the showing of His power to deliver them.

“Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants!” he said. “They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.”

In a Beats 1 interview with DJ Zane Lowe, West compared himself to Nebuchadnezzar.

“Nebuchadnezzar was the king…And he looked at his entire kingdom and said, ‘I did this.’ And God said, ‘Oh, for real? You did this?’ Sounds kind of similar, right?” West explained, according to Forbes. “I’m standing on the tip of the mountain talking about Yeezus. Saying, ‘I did this!’ That I’m a God! And I would—I could talk to Jesus at the end of my show. I had (laughs) a guy dressed up as Jesus, at the end of my show.”

Referring to his own mental health problems, West added: “Nebuchadnezzar was diagnosed with bipolar disorder…and he was still king!”