The Barber of Springfield

David Christopher
Dr. Jennifer Wise
THEA 309a
03-December-2009


Operatic High Art vs. Operatic Popular Entertainment in the Simpsons' Homer of Seville


The Simpsons has long been a reflection of common North American sensibilities and has also been in touch with the institutions of popular art and entertainment. Episodes have included parodies of Shakespeare (as a Zombie), Edgar Allen Poe's the Raven, the media circus surrounding the candidacy of Bill Clinton for President, an insane asylum patient convinced that he is Michael Jackson, Star Wars, Star Trek, and more. The Simpsons' humour, like all humour, is dependent on the complicity of the audience. When someone expresses a preference against a type of comedy that they do not find humorous, it is often an indicator of a more fundamental sensibility. That is to say that they do not share the perspective that the target of the humour is risible, and therefore they are unable to appreciate the parody or satire. Like a touchstone to popular opinion, The Simpsons has satirized or parodied virtually every recognizable global institution. The recent re-popularization of opera motivated the ongoing television series to devote an entire episode to the art form, entitled Homer of Seville. Typical of the Simpsons, the humour is well informed and in this episode, it demonstrates a well-researched knowledge of the history of opera. The parody takes particular aim at the disparity between popular American entertainment and haute couture art in the form of opera, which has historically intended to be both.
Taking a holistic view of the chronological episode, a pattern of satiric themes emerges. The opening sequence is normally a simple variation on a theme of the family racing to their couch to watch television. In this episode, however, the animators take an entirely different approach and present the convention of the evolution of man, in the form of Homer. There is something particularly appropriate about the evolution of man that is animated in the opening sequence. The art of opera represents some of the highest achievements of the evolved human mind and it effectively sets the tenor for the ensuing parody of an art form that presently continues to evolve.
Early in the episode, Mr. Burns approaches Homer with an offer to sing at "The Springfield Opera House, of which [he is] founder, artistic director, and standing ovation starter" (8:22-8:26). Mr. Burns' control over all aspects of the production may well be a reference to the building and artistic control that Wagner held over his theatre at Bayreuth in which he staged the Ring Cycles. The comic mention of "standing ovation starter" is an obvious glance at nineteenth century Paris' Auguste Levasseur who instituted the claque. He would effectively hire audience plants to begin and sustain applause at key moments when it was desirable to bolster the audience's natural reaction and make critical acclaim more certain (Wise). This contrived aspect of Grand Opera became such a fundamental institution that ‘Auguste’ took on an iconic status. “Auguste’s art consisted of much more than just unleashing a storm of applause whenever he gave the signal: he was probably Veron’s closest advisor” (Somerset-Ward 155). In fact, his marketing skills were deemed so valuable that, without any formal musical knowledge, he took an active part in advising dancers and singers prior to their performances. The character of Mr. Burns fancies himself a bit of an ‘Auguste’.
In response to Mr. Burns' offer, Homer admits that he can only sing when lying on his back. The avaricious Mr. Burns simply replies with a dismissive comment that it can be covered with a "re-write" (8:33-8:34). The parody aims at the fact that opera, in its lack of realism, can be modified to accommodate the most ludicrous stage representation. Inherent to the parody is an attack on theatrical art that does not fall within the popular confines of realism. Evidently, realism is a mode of acting that has become so pervasively popular, it merits the risibility of all other forms of theatre in the sensibilities of the Simpsons audience. In his essay, Realism and the American dramatic tradition, William W. Demastes identifies the "tyranny of realism. This phrase summarizes the impression expressed in numerous critical analyses of twentieth century American drama [...] [S]uch playwrights as Eugene O'Neill and Sam Shepard [...] returned to this form if for no other reason than that American audiences have been more willing to accept realist drama more than any other form" (Demastes ix). Realism in drama has become the standard for American entertainment against which American audiences measure and parody all forms of entertainment outside of its regime.
During rehearsal, Homer is confronted by a hyper-emotional French director, complete with stereotypical beret (8:45-8:55). This may be another glance at French opera, but it is certainly indicative of the shameless way that the Simpsons will exploit stereotypes. However, the exploitation of stereotypes may be more than it seems. On the surface, the parody appears to be aimed at the French director, but the stereotype presented does not typify historical French opera. The stereotype might be more accurately representative of Broadway directors. Long ago, in season three, the Simpsons established a well-informed parody of the Broadway musical in an episode entitled A Streetcar Named Marge. The current parody is actually aimed at both the narrow perspective held by American audiences as to what constitutes entertainment, and the ignorance of the common audience at large as to what represents opera.
Audience patrons of Homer's first performance include his working class colleagues, Lenny and Karl. Standing in the rafters above the stage, they converse. "Homer's fantastic! / Yeah but these seats are terrible" (9:16-9:21). The obvious allusion to Citizen Kane is further evidence of the Simpsons' vast survey of American art and popular culture. More important is the social comment made about opera audiences. In contrast to the working class priced seats occupied by Lenny and Karl, their interaction is immediately followed by the image of audience members, in good seats, centred by an elderly woman sporting a beehive hairstyle and looking through stemmed opera glasses (9:23-9:24). Other audience members caricatured as staunch and elderly surround her. The message seems to be that opera is unaffordable except to the wealthy elite and that it only appeals to the conservative elderly patron. She wipes away a single tear. Considering the patrician facade that she represents, the humour seems to suggest that only lofty art such as opera can elicit even the slightest emotional response in her while the less financially well-off patrons are systemically compromised in their appreciation due to their poor seats.
Homer's ridiculous performance concludes with his rapidly alternating between lying and standing for the singing and dramatic parts of his performance respectively (9:29-9:40). The audience then stands and in a universal British accent, shouts stereotypical theatre interjections of appreciation: "Bravo! Bravo! Bellissimo! Encore!" (9:41-9:47). The parody here is a trope not established by the Simpsons but exacerbated in their repeated use of the British accent to symbolize wealthy Victorian elitism. For example in a Season Three episode entitled Lisa's Pony, the same accent is identified as part of a "patrician facade" by the stoic elderly female stable owner and trainer who sneers at Homer for his social standing and lack of wealth (20:50). In fact, the character suggests she is correcting Lisa's accent as she begins to enter the elitist world of horseback riding. The pretentious stable trainer says, "I'm teaching your daughter riding, grooming, and at no extra charge, pronunciation" (13:13-13:19). Lisa, astride her pony in fashionable equestrian garb responds with a ridiculous version of the British accent. In the episode at hand, the same stereotype of the generic British accent is used to caricature the American perspective of the opera patron demographic.
The most distinctive evidence of the contrast between American popular entertainment and lofty operatic art follows Homer's performance. The audience acclaim in the previous scene prompts Mr. Burns to comment, "Homer, you are a star." Homer responds with an exuberant "Woo-hoo!" Mr. Burns then completes his interrupted sentence by emphasizing, "...an opera star!" Homer's celebratory mood disappears and he plaintively groans in disappointment. "Oooh" (9:51-9:55). Homer's disappointment at the type of fame he has achieved is a parody of the narrow American vision of stardom being exclusive to popular entertainment. The lofty arts are of a much lesser appeal to the uncultured Homer. The following interlude with Bart and Lisa clarify Homer's ignorance further.
Bart: "Dad you were great!"
Lisa: "And you contributed to our culture!"
Homer: "I didn't mean to."
Lisa: "No-no. It's a good thing" (9:57-10:04).
In Homer's stupidity, he actually has to be consoled that fame by culture is positive.
The scene that follows jumps to an image of an elaborate system of pulleys rigged to elevate Homer's lying body into the air against an Egyptian background. The pulley system requires the strength of two elephants in a side-stage area to operate. The surface joke in the 'dialogue' of the elephants is leveled at Homer's weight (10:17-10:32). However, for the informed observer, it is easy to interpret a parody of the historical use of complex machinery to create stage spectacle typical in French Grand Opera and exemplified in Handel's Rinaldo.
In the "locker room" as the sign on the door identifies it, Homer is given an athlete's snap of the towel to the ass by a Placido Domingo caricature wearing naught but a towel (10:53-10:57). The image juxtaposes athletic locker-room camaraderie against the expected operatic changing room etiquette. Ironically, Placido Domingo expresses the complicit views of the common viewer: "There iss one thing about opera that hass alwayss bugged me. Everyone singss instead of talking, but you made me believe I wass in a magical world, where singing iss talking" (11:08-11:22). The comment reiterates how modern audiences privilege realism over other forms of theatre or drama that are aimed at arousing emotional responses in other ways. However, it also demonstrates a deep understanding of the fundamental problem with opera. "In opera, there is a constant tension between the music and the drama" (Wise).
Domingo's accent is very obvious. English opera has never been particularly popular and even less common. The fallout from the earliest performances of Rinaldo and the virtuosity of castrati performances in London was severe (Wise), and American culture is characterized by extreme ethnocentricity and the racist backlash against people who do not speak the language. This linguistic defensiveness openly extends into art forms that are not commonly presented in English. The lack of English opera, combined with the popularity of realism, has resulted in opera's absence from the late twentieth and twenty-first century mainstream of popular American culture. Given, however, the informed perspective on the tension between drama and music that is at the heart of the genius of opera (Mozart / Carmen), and the fact that Homer is both a buffoon and the paradigm representation of common American opinion, it seems clear that the parody is actually attacking the limited American range of artistic taste which is largely exclusive to popular film and music.
Homer demonstrates an irreverent buffoonery when he looks at Placido Domingo and says that of the Three Tenors, he is his "second favourite" (11:23-11:29). Then, after remembering "that other guy" he adds insult to injury by saying that he is the third favourite. Domingo is caricatured as incredulous and dumbfounded (11:30). The irony and juxtaposition continue to mount as Domingo then asks Homer, bearing an excitement in his face reminiscent of a child eager for approval, to evaluate a "new note he has been working on" (11:31-11:37). The note is expertly executed to which a puffed-up Homer instructs him to "Keep reaching for the stars, kid" (11:37-11:59). The expected hierarchical dynamic is inverted by placing Domingo in a subservient position, which satirizes how American culture maintains a perspective of humble reverence for those elite to whom we have ascribed artistic genius within the perceived 'haute couture' of opera. The truth of the humanity behind the elevated status of the Opera star is laid bare. Domingo is left standing exposed as humanly fallible, naked (literally, except for a towel), humiliated, deflated (12:00-12:02). In this instance, the self-important iconographic status that opera seems to embody is parodied and brought low.
The juxtaposition of opera and rap in the following scene comically demonstrates that opera is also a form of popular entertainment. Homer tries to marry his operatic fame into the pop-culture rap music stereotypes of the American common media. Marge suggests that their anniversary dinner would be more romantic without Homer's "entourage" (12:06-12:11). Wikipedia states that Homer's entourage, Lenny and Carl, specifically parodies the television series Entourage but I suggest it has broader appeal as a parody of rap-culture in general. Homer responds with vernacular stereotypical of the popular entertainment genre of rap. He vaguely claims he needs his posse to "keep it real" (12:15). Later two elderly groupies will extend the juxtaposition of young urban vernacular against operatic fame when one of these elderly women pines that she really wants to "hook-up with Homer" (13:34-13:36).
Although opera may not be characteristic of mainstream popular entertainment in the U.S., it has been characterized by fanatical reactions by its patrons. In the entourage scene, two elderly female groupies accost Homer during his dinner with Marge (12:29). They are followed by the approach and praise of a waiter who is stereotypified as gay in his demeanour and in the innuendo of Homer's response (12:51-13:03). For the second time, the audience to which opera appeals is presented as elderly women, to which the parody adds gay men. In the following scene, Homer and Marge are chased by a screaming and frantic mob of elderly female groupies (14:03-14:40). Juxtaposed against the reserved behaviour expected of their demographic is the insanely fanatical behaviour reminiscent of Beatles' fans. Most of the rest of the episode then follows a more focused parody of opera fanaticism. An obsessed fan that originally poses as the Simpsons’ saviour in the form of a manager stalks Homer and persistently offers him sexual favours. To extend the fan parody, particularly of those who identify with the intellectual elite, Lisa, while scanning the audience for a potential threat to her father during his final performance, complains only of someone "loudly unwrapping his candy!" (18:42-18:49). Clearly this is less important than her father's safety, but exemplifies a stereotype of the hypersensitivity of opera fans towards opera house etiquette.
The episode also includes a verbal parody of the often larger physique of operatic performers that became a stereotype after the popularization of the Three Tenors and perhaps with a glance at Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld who played Isolde in Wagner's Tristan in Munich in the summer of 1865. Somerset-Ward candidly describes him as "a massive man with a gigantic girth" (134). Marge insists that Homer's operatic fame has got him "out of control" with "late nights, and eating. You've actually outgrown your cape" (13:07-13:12). Marge notes only these two elements out of a litany of 'out of control' behaviours currently associated with fast-fame, which emphasizes the stereotype of weight ascribed to operatic artists. Furthermore, the presentation of Homer wearing a cape seems to satirize the stereotype of both operatic costuming and the eccentric fashion choices associated with the egomaniacal virtuosos of the twentieth century.
The Simpsons’ episode seems better informed in its parody than the famous Bugs Bunny parody of Wagner's ring cycle. The hilarious "kill the wabbit" rendition of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries is complete with Elmer Fudd wearing a Viking costume and a horned magic helmet. Bugs is later seen costumed with long braids from under another horned helmet. The stereotype of Norse myth as it appeared in Wagner's Bayreuth Ring Cycle is very specific. At the time of the cartoon's release, the stereotype of opera seems to have found a paradigm in Wagner. The Bugs Bunny cartoon uses this opera exclusively. The Simpsons, by contrast shows a broader range of operatic fares as though it is intending to demonstrate a better-informed survey of the art form as it is appreciated today. The only reference made to the stereotype paradigm of Wagner occurs when Chief Wiggum needs to go on-stage during a performance to protect Homer. While announcing that he's "going in" he replaces his police uniform hat with a horned Norse helmet (19:11-19:16). He then takes the clichéd tumble off the stage into the orchestra (19:17-19:19). Ironically, in a stereotype of Wagnerian opera, this tumble would not be possible since the orchestra was hidden in a space under the stage at Bayreuth.
Within Homer's satirical final performance, the episode finds the space to parody one last convention that represents a marriage of both popular entertainment and opera via the recent Broadway hit The Phantom of the Opera. Within that story line, the giant chandelier over the auditorium mysteriously and dangerously falls on the audience. Both the operatic venue and chandelier tragedy are parodied as Chief Wiggum implements safety measures that include "pre-crashing the chandelier" (18:18-18:20). Homer summarizes the contradictory popularity of the opera in an ironic statement in which he claims, "I'm retiring from the opera. It's just too popular" (20:40-20:46). Homer's final words make an ironic connection between the high art of opera and popular entertainment.
The last scene of the episode delineates the high arts in general as a unified ideology. Homer, while making romantic gestures towards Marge, states that he knows an activity that can be accomplished while lying on his back that is much more fun. Following, however, is an image of him painting baroque art on the ceiling of his home while lying on his back on a scaffolding. The image is the stereotype of Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. Homer states that somehow "singing opera" made him "good at painting". The connection of what is typically considered haute couture or high art, associated with classical styles and specifically baroque, is obviously intended to classify them in a singular category in particular opposition to lower popular entertainment.
The humour of the Simpsons moves so rapidly from one parody to the next in stychomythiaic dialogue that it is difficult to identify a singular form of humour. Comic visual representation with vibrant colours, accompanied by rapid verbal humour that demonstrate irony, burlesque, pun, and coincidence, are laid against a well-informed cultural knowledge of the larger institution being satirized. In this case, the focus is opera, and there is almost no aspect of opera that is not represented. In order to truly appreciate the depth of the humour, one must be well versed in the esoteric details of international opera history: Auguste's claque, Wagner's Bayreuth, the iconic status of Placido Domingo. The common threads with which all of the humour is imbued is twofold. In the Simpsons characteristic ability to parody both sides of an institution, the episode ridicules the narrow view of popular American artistic taste while simultaneously ridiculing the lofty and inaccessible position to which opera may have been relegated in an all-English culture that is hyper-loyal to its realism. There is a certain irony in the most ubiquitous popular-cultural television series bringing the most elite haute couture form of art into the popular spotlight. However, it may be argued that the parody of opera was inevitable as, prior to its topical coverage by the Simpsons, it had began to garner more popular appeal on its own. Either way, the parody is clearly aimed at popular entertainment and high theatrical art alike, through the institution of opera, which is conveniently both.


Works Cited

Demastes, William W., ed. Realism and the American dramatic tradition. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998.

"Homer of Seville." the Simpsons. Writ. Carolyn Omine. Dir. Michael Plocino. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 2009. November 23, 2009.

"Lisa's Pony." the Simpsons: The Complete Third Season. Writ. Al Jean & Mike Reiss. Dir. Carlos Baeza. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Inc., 2003. DVD.

Somerset-Ward, Richard. The Story of Opera. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1996

Wise, Dr. Jennifer. Introduction to Theatre History 309a. Univeristy of Victoria. Phoenix Theatre Building, Victoria, BC. September - November 2009. Classroom Lectures.