The Homer of Seville

"The Homer of Seville" is the second episode of The Simpsons ' nineteenth season and first aired on September 30, 2007. It was written by Carolyn Omine, directed by Michael Polcino and guest starred Plácido Domingo as himself and Maya Rudolph as Julia.

Plot
The episode starts with the Simpsons family escaping Church. Marge decides she wants to eat out instead of cooking for herself as usual. After finding out every place has lines, Marge goes as far as to break into someone's apparent party. It does not take long for them to realize that they crashed a funeral. Homer volunteers to be a pallbearer, filling in for a man who has twisted his ankle. After falling into an open grave, Homer is sent to the hospital.

While at the hospital, Homer finds out his usual "D'oh" did not sound as right as usual. While causing the bed to sit upright, and lay flat, Dr. Hibbert notices Homer's diaphragm is safely under his stomach when he is lying down, giving him the ability to sing in an operatic voice that causes new born babies to cease crying and weak patients to feel strong.

While shopping for organs, Mr. Burns overhears Homer and immediately hires him to sing the lead in his production of La bohème. Homer wows the crowd at the Springfield Opera House. Homer becomes an enormous celebrity who consistently receives attention from older aged women. While running from a mob of his crazed fans, Homer is saved by a person on a motorcycle he assumes is a man, however at the home "he" is revealed to be a "she", named Julia. When Marge goes into the kitchen to bring tea, Julia strips naked and says she wants to have sex with him, and threatens Homer that she will tell Marge Homer attacked her if he tells. Over the next few days, she keeps appearing in sexually suggestive positions. Homer, soon enraged, fires her.

Next morning, Homer is nearly bitten by a poisonous cobra, and Lisa worries someone is trying to kill Homer. At Homer's next performance, Chief Wiggum goes to general measures, none of which are useful. Julia arrives to shoot Homer with a poisonous blowdart. While Marge saves Homer, the shot fires through a French Horn and back into Julia's neck. Every sniper in the opera house starts shooting at Julia, although all but one miss. She is taken to the hospital, vowing revenge on Marge. Homer gives up opera to work on his new passion: painting.

Cultural references

 * The title is a reference to The Barber of Seville.
 * Lisa claims that tenor Andrea Bocelli recorded an entire song on his back. Bocelli apparently did record one track on his Amore album on his back, and demonstrated this technique on an episode of American Idol in 2006.
 * The Springfield Opera House is shaped like the Sydney Opera House.
 * The scene of Lenny and Carl watching Homer's opera performance from the rafters is a reference to a similar scene in Citizen Kane.
 * Homer's entourage, Lenny and Carl, is a parody of the HBO series Entourage. The music when Lenny (who dresses like Turtle) and Carl are in the limousine is the show's theme song.
 * The orchestral sequence featured in the Cobra scene is the overture of Mozart's opera, Don Giovanni.
 * When Carl and Lenny are sent away from the table at the Guilded Truffle, Carl mutters "Yoko", at Marge. It is a reference to Yoko "breaking up The Beatles", but in this case Marge is breaking up the entourage.
 * Homer paints a parody of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam on the ceiling.

Reception
Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a poor review (4.5/10). He found the plot contrived and found Homer's rendition "If Ever I Would Leave You" unfunny. He did enjoy the episode's opening scenes in the church.