The famously tireless Placido Domingo already has a repertoire of over 120 roles, sings all over the globe, conducts, runs two opera companies and produces a vocal competition. And he's just taken on an entirely new job: cartoon voice-over artist. The veteran tenor appears on an episode of The Simpsons set to air early next season.

The producer of the animated series on the Fox network, Al Jean, described the episode — titled "The Homer of Seville" — this way to the website ComingSoon.net: "Homer becomes an opera star, and he has these groupies who are these middle-aged matrons that chase him around and Marge is really jealous." Domingo, playing himself, encourages Homer in his new career.

Jean indicated that the episode would air on or around September 30 (check your local listings for the time in your area).

While at least one Simpsons episode before now has had an opera theme (Bart and Lisa wrote and staged one), Domingo is the first opera star to appear on the series in its more-than-18-year history. (So far.)

"I have seen episodes and I see how people react to the shows," the tenor told the Chicago Sun-Times in an interview published today, "and so I say, why not?"

Nancy Cartwright, the actress who provides the voice of Bart Simpson, wrote of Domingo on her website, "Although he and Bart didn't have any scenes together, watching the 'King of Opera' take singing lessons from Homer was definitely one of the highlights of working on the show."

By Matthew Westphal