Carmen: A Hip Hopera
| Carmen: A Hip Hopera | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Robert Townsend |
| Produced by | Graig Hutchison |
| Written by | Michael Elliot |
| Starring |
Mekhi Phifer Beyoncé Knowles Mos Def Rah Digga Wyclef Jean Lil' Bow Wow Da Brat Jermaine Dupri Reagan Gomez-Preston |
| Music by | Kip Collins |
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Release date
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Carmen: A Hip Hopera is a 2001 musical film produced for television 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), Mos Def, Rah Digga, Wyclef Jean, Mekhi Phifer, Da Brat, Joy Bryant, Jermaine Dupri and Lil' Bow Wow. It is based upon Georges Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen, 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 attempt at an African-American adaptation of the opera, the first being the 1943 Broadway musical Carmen Jones and its 1954 Academy Award nominated and box office hit film adaptation.
Carmen Brown (Beyoncé Knowles) is a seductive, aspiring actress who mistakenly causes trouble everywhere she goes. She gets involved with Sgt. Derek Hill (Mekhi Phifer), who is engaged to the cocktail waitress, Caela (Reagan Gomez-Preston). At Lou's Bar, Carmen gets into a fight with a jealous woman. Hill's superior, Lieutenant Miller (Mos Def) orders Hill to bring Carmen to jail. Carmen tries unsuccessfully to seduce Hill, but she convinces him to let her stop at her apartment to put her mother's ring in a safe place so it does not get stolen in jail. There, she puts on lingerie and wins him over. He is caught in the morning (with Carmen nowhere to be found) by Lieutenant Miller (who is now revealed to be a crooked cop), who brings Caela with him as he arrests Hill. Caela slaps Hill and tells him she hates him.
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