In Review: Blumberg is "Outstanding" in BEMF "Le Carnaval de Venise" and “Liviet
"In casting the male romantic lead as a baritone rather than the traditional high tenor, Campra broke with the tradition established by Lully and his contemporaries. Jesse Blumberg’s beautiful high notes and clear low range, along with highly nuanced and expressive delivery, made him an ideal choice for the role" -Boston Musical Intelligencer
Read full review. "Léandre (Jesse Blumberg) ardent but unctuously bluff." -The Boston Globe
"Other singers doing significant double duty were Jesse Blumberg, as Isabelle’s Léandre and, hilariously, the bumbling thief Tracollo" -New York Times
"But it was Jesse Blumberg who absconded with the laurels as the thieving con man Tracollo. Making his entrance disguised as a poor, pregnant, Polish beggar woman of uncertain age with a parched, nasal, Buoso Donati voice, he replies to Livietta’s challenges in a pidgin of Neapolitan dialect, standard Italian, and something vaguely recollected through the haze of a hangover. Their exchange quickly deteriorates into a “who’s on first” riot of misprision. His batty astrologer later talked nonsense with conviction and the interminable mock lament, “Ecco il povero Tracollo”, where he envisions his fate if handed over to the authorities, was a comic tour de force, amusing the audience but exasperating the other characters. Comparing his dancing at the end of a rope to the twitching and spasms of a strangled chicken was the last straw, sending the rest of the company grotesquely capering around the stage, executing the Baroque equivalent of the Funky Chicken." -BachTrack.com
"Jesse Blumberg was a suave Leandre. His Act 2 serenade, which begins solo in French then shifts into Italian for a trio with his Venetian accompanists, “Luci belle dormite”, was outstanding." - BachTrack.com Read full review.