Carmen: A Hip Hopera is a 2001 American made-for-television musical romance drama film produced by MTV and directed by Robert Townsend. The film stars Beyoncé Knowles in her debut acting role (predating her theatrical film debut in Austin Powers in Goldmember), Mekhi Phifer, Mos Def, Rah Digga, Wyclef Jean, Da Brat, Joy Bryant, Reagan Gomez-Preston (who had previously work with Townsend on The Parent 'Hood, which ended two years earlier), Jermaine Dupri and Lil' Bow Wow. It is based upon the 1875 opera Carmen by Georges Bizet, Ludovic Halévy and Henri Meilhac. The film is set in Philadelphia and Los Angeles in modern times and features a mostly original hip-hop/R&B score in place of Bizet's opera.
The film is the second major African-American adaptation of the opera, the first being the 1943 Broadway musical Carmen Jones and its 1954 Academy Award-nominated film adaptation. Check out more about the 2000s here.
