Homer discovers the joy of opera, but a fatal attraction could prove to be his undoing. No, Lurleen Lumpkin hasn’t gone off her rocker in this episode of the Simpsons, “Homer of Seville” (AKA: The Homer of Seville”)

Kredit Kookies: Chalkboard Gag: The Wall Street Journal is Better than Ever. Couch Gag: The ever-popular “Evolution of Homer”, first seen in Homerazzi (which will be seen twice more this season).

We open at The First Church of Springfield, where the placard outside reads “Jesus: The Real American Idol”. At the pulpit, Reverend Lovejoy’s finally coming to the end of an apparently long homily, which sends the Simpsons hastily fleeing for the exit at its conclusion. They pile into the Simpmobile and start searching for a place to eat (Best Restaurant Title: Buffet The Hunger Slayer), only to find each line to be ridiculously long. Bart points out a catering van setting food up at a house – it belongs to the Starving Teacher Catering service.
 
Marge sneaks the family inside and marvels at the high-quality food set up. They begin to help themselves, until Bart mistakes a sundae bar for an open casket. Whoops – they’ve crashed a wake. Homer already knows – he’s going to be a replacement pall bearer (“I thought they said polar bear!”). Naturally, at the burial ceremony he trips over his own feet, drops the casket and falls into an open grave, injuring his back into immobility.

Homer lies prone in the hospital, and ends up getting x-rayed by Dr. Hibbert. He informs him that the procedure will cost over a thousand dollars. In response, he “D’Oh’s” in a lovely, melodic voice, stunning his family. Hibbert deduces that, due to his injury, Homer’s stomach now lodges underneath his diaphragm, which results in an operatic singing voice. Homer finds this ludicrous, but Lisa points out that others have done the same thing.

Hibbert suggests Homer sing for the hospital’s patients; with Marge pushing him along as he sings “If Ever I Would Leave You” from Camelot, his voice drifts throughout the wings and wards, moving patients and doctors alike toward acts of sentimentality.
 
Down in the morgue, Mr. Burns is shopping for fresh parts. Homer’s voice distracts him from the promise of a case of adam’s apples; Burns immediately seeks him out and offers him the lead in the Springfield Opera House’s production of La Boheme. As Lead Standing Ovation Starter (and, of course, its wealthiest patron) of the house, he has no trouble getting Homer into the play (with a quick re-write of the script, his character is stuck in bed with a broken foot).

On opening night, the crowd goes wild, and Homer’s informed by Burns he’s a major star...a major opera star, to Homer’s disappointment.

Nevertheless, his fame spreads - soon he’s singing the national anthem at hockey games, hobnobbing in steam baths with Placido Domingo, and taking Marge out to fancy French restaurants on their anniversary. At The Gilded Truffle during their anniversary dinner, as a matter of fact, Marge begins to resent Homer’s fame. She realizes that her husband’s become even more corpulent than usual in his success, and his fame’s gone completely to his head, they’re constantly surrounded by Lenny and Carl (Homer’s “entourage”), and he flirts with everyone in range. She tells them she misses their privacy. Homer responds by dismissing a disappointed Lenny and Carl, at what point his fans begin to swarm around. Marge leaves in a huff, and Homer follows her, pleading his case.

Unfortunately, they’re not alone, as the flock of opera groupies aggressively chase them through the back alleys of Springfield. They’re about to be overtaken by the group when a woman on a ninja bike speeds to their rescue.

She drives them home, where she reveals herself to be a woman named Julia, one of Homer’s biggest fans. She offers to be Homer’s manager, explaining that she hates the way other fans mob him, and Homer and Marge eagerly accept her offer, thinking she’ll keep the crazies in check. Once Marge is out of the room, however, Julia strips off her outfit and comes on to Homer – she offers him herself, but if he tells Marge she’ll say he attacked her.

Homer does indeed hire Julia, who’s uber-efficient as a manager but continuously makes passes at him. He begins to feel that she’s stalking him and finally works up the courage to dismiss her. She goes quietly but vows to get payback on him. And payback she does try to achieve, by putting a cobra in his cereal. He beats it unconscious but Lisa suggests it might be time to get him some quality security – the Springfield PD.

Marge more than remembers the force’s track record and, the night of Homer’s next big performance (in the Barber of Seville), tries to get them to cancel it. Chief Wiggum tries to assure her that the area’s completely secure – they even pre-crashed the chandelier. The performance begins, but a sharp-eyed Bart spots Julia dressed up as a conductor. Before Marge can shout a warning, the conductor reveals herself to be Julia, who turns and blows a poisoned dart in Homer’s direction. Thinking quickly, Marge grabs a French horn – the dart makes its long way back out and toward Julia, who’s felled by it instead.

Despite being the victim of the re-crashed chandelier and a terrible team of snipers (she’s only hit by one bullet in addition to the dart), Julia’s still alive – as she’s being wheeled out of the opera house, she tells Homer that she’ll be up and stalking again, soon. This prompts Homer to choose retirement, deciding he’d rather have his privacy than an opera career. Besides, he decides, snuggling up to Marge, he can think of some other fun things he’d like to do while on his back...

Cut to Homer on a scaffold, painting the ceiling of the master bedroom in the style of the Sistine Chapel, in which the Adam figure is replaced by Homer. We fade to black on a classical version of the Simpsons theme.

Red Dress Press: The second episode of the season is the first mixed episode of the season. While the idea of Homer becoming an opera singer is novel, and the material is inventive, the base material of crazy groupie Julia feels weak and predictable.

The best thing about the episode would be the voicework of Dan Castellaneta, who previously used his exquisite singing ability in “My Fair Laddie”. He has such a fluid, mellifluous voice that he joins Seth MacFarlane in the “voice actors who should put out an album” category.

Characterization was decent – that the Simpsons were too busy gorging themselves on food to realize that they were at a wake is a little far-fetched, though. In the same episode, Bart is abruptly observant enough to notice Julia’s the conductor; the audience can believe one, but not both. Homer became believably absorbed in his own fame, believably concerned about Julia, and realistically concerned Marge was slipping away from him – Marge’s arguments for privacy were all well within her characterization, too. Homer’s singing for the hospital felt like far too much of a callback to Bleeding Gums Murphy’s last solo in “Round Springfield”, however.

The animation in the episode was particularly beautiful – the Springfield Opera House and its Sydney Opera House-esque exterior were  praiseworthy. Everything to do with the opera was, in fact done very well and with an obvious affection for the genre.

Did It Fail At Masonry?: Middling, but leaning more toward the positive. Very watchable for the most part, so it gets a record and a watch. Keep at your own discretion.

What The Screwballs Think: The show gained 8.4 million viewers, just below the season debut.

Springfield Shopper: This was a Krusty Klassik Rekap of a Season Nineteen episode. Keep an eye out for recaps of “Midnight Towboy” and “I Don’t Wanna Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” set to be posted in August!