The Homer of Seville

"The Homer of Seville" is the second episode of season 19. It was written by Carolyn Omine and directed by Michael Polcino. Plácido Domingo and Maya Rudolph guest star as and  respectively.

Plot
As Reverend Lovejoy's sermon comes to a close, everyone rushes out of the church, with the Simpson family wanting to be the first ones out of the parking lot. As they drive off, the family decides on which restaurant to go to for a meal, since Marge doesn't want to cook. After seeing huge lines outside of every restaurant, they see a Starving Teachers Catering van outside a house and decide to head there to eat from the buffet. Whilst eating, they see a group of people crowding round one table and find that they were at a funeral. Marge decides that they need to leave the funeral but Homer is asked to be a pallbearer, which he accepts, thinking she asked if he wanted to be a polar bear. Whilst taking the coffin to its grave, Homer falls into an open grave and hurts his back, only for Bart to pile dirt on him.

At the Springfield General Hospital, Dr. Hibbert tells Homer that he has a mild back sprain and ingested a large quantity of grave dirt. When Homer makes a "D'oh!" noise, the family realizes that it sounds more musical than usual. Dr. Hibbert then realizes that lying on his back gives Homer a powerful singing voice due to the way his internal organs line up. Homer then sings "If Ever I Would Leave You" to the hospital, only for Mr. Burns to hear. Burns then asks Homer to star in an opera, which they would rewrite to have him lying down.

Homer stars in La bohème, where he proved to be a huge success. He then starred in multiple other shows and sung at a half-time show for a hockey match. After one of his shows, Homer met in the locker room. After a small discussion, Domingo asks Homer to check out a new note he was working on and Homer gave him pointers on how to improve it. After this show, Homer and Marge go out on a date at The Gilded Truffle, with Homer bringing his entourage of Lenny and Carl with him, to Marge's annoyance. After their date, the couple are chased by a group of old women who were Homer's fans. When they got stuck down a dead-end alley, a mysterious biker jumps the fence and rescues them, taking them home. The biker then takes off her helmet to reveal that she is, a female biker, which surprises Homer. Marge then invites Julia in for coffee and Julia asks if she can be head of Homer's fan club. To celebrate, Marge goes to make pie and Julia then removes her clothes, telling Homer that he can have her whenever he wants. As Homer tries to call out to Marge, Julia threatens him that if he tells Marge anything, she would tell Marge that Homer attacked her.

Julia then becomes Homer's manager, whilst trying to seduce Homer. Eventually, Homer tells Julia that his heart belongs to Marge and Julia would never be with him. Julia seems to accept this and leave, but the next morning, Homer is attacked by a cobra. Lisa realizes that someone is trying to kill Homer, but he has another opera scheduled, The Barber of Seville. Marge wants to cancel the show, but Chief Wiggum refuses and says that they have made it safe for Homer to perform. During the show, Bart and Marge realize that the conductor is actually Julia, and that she has poison blow darts. As Chief Wiggum fails to stop her, Marge jumps down from her seat and uses a French horn to stop the poison dart, sending it back at Julia. As Julia falls off the stage, the police snipers shoot at her. After getting hit by a couple of bullets, a chandelier drops on her.

Outside the Springfield Opera House, Dr. Hibbert reveals that the bullets from the snipers stopped Julia's heart long enough for the chandelier to fall on her, pushing the poison out. Marge tells Julia that nobody comes between her and her Homie, and Julia tells Marge that she organized the cable guy to come on Wednesday, a day that wasn't good for Marge. Julia is then taken to hospital, under arrest, as Homer decides to quit opera due to the crazy fans, then says he knows something else fun he can do on his back. Back at home, Homer is lying on his back, on scaffolding, painting a version of on the ceiling.

Production
Al Jean went to Carolyn Omine for the episode because Matt Groening wanted to do an opera episode. Carolyn got the idea from an episode of American Idol where opera singer Andrea Bocelli was mentoring and told Daughtry that if he lay on his back, he could sing higher notes. Plácido Domingo, who guest starred in the episode, came up with his own note to sing for the episode, when he was asked to sing a note.

There was originally a joke about Domingo eating a big sandwich, but the executive said that he wasn't heavy, so they changed the joke.

Reception
The episode was nominated for a 2008 for Animation, but lost to the episode "Kill Gil, Volumes I & II".

Robert Canning of gave the episode a 4.5 rating, saying that the episode's "incongruous storyline and frighteningly immense lack of laughs, have disappointed us once more". He went on to say the episode had no "heart or purpose" and the episode was a "hodgepodge collection of moments that went nowhere, and, more importantly, failed to bring the funny". Canning also thought that the scene with Homer singing "If Ever I Would Leave You" was "excruciatingly long". He also thought the episode lacked "a sense of purpose."

As of December 2019, the episode has a 6.5 rating on and a 7.8 rating on.