Acclaim

It helps that BLO had a stellar cast to bring this vocal writing to life. Jesse Blumberg brought a particular bravado and a warm baritone voice to Hawkins Fuller that made him absolutely magnetic to watch, and made it very easy to see what it was that Timothy sees in him even in the final scene after Hawkins betrays him.

Fuller – sung with a strongly grounded, rich baritone voice and played with heartbreaking complexity by Jesse Blumberg

Baritone Jesse Blumberg is wonderful as Hawk, a man who seems assured in his own skin yet (as we learn) deeply conflicted about being gay to the point of destructiveness. Blumberg keeps the dramatic stakes high; despite his outward confidence as the easygoing charmer, he plays the restlessness beneath from the outset. He's especially compelling in his second-act aria of denial ("Our very own home"): "I'm not one of those," sung in a melancholy lower register over a deliberate, foreboding ostinato.

As Hawk, baritone Jesse Blumberg was delightful and immediately engaging: his dark, broad sound easily provided solid basis for a believable, seductive swagger. Blumberg’s interpretation matures with his character: circumstance tempers his initial confidence and Blumberg effectively conveys the character’s brooding interior life. Blumberg’s sensitive turn in Hawk’s final aria “Our very own home” was the dramatic highlight of the entire evening.

Jesse Blumberg’s Atalante proved appealingly versatile: sinister in his Act 1 appearances, elegant and suave in Act 2’s “Che bella preda,” and mining the Handelian brio of Act 3’s “Mal concertate moli” with cool charm.

The fifty-minute piece was a true test of endurance, yet Blumberg and pianist Leann Osterkamp stayed cool and maintained a focused energy through every tumultuous and tender movement. Blumberg’s dramatic baritone was commanding and declamatory, with sensitive shifts in color that added a subdued drama in quieter moments.

From the moment we began to hear Blumberg's well-rounded low notes, I knew that he could rank among the best basses I've heard live in Messiah . . . the range, authority, and sheer beauty of Blumberg's singing were nonpareil. Coupled with Wilson's virtuosity, Blumberg's was the best "Trumpet Shall Sound" I've heard anytime, anywhere.

baritone Jesse Blumberg stole the show with his bass arias, strong yet deeply expressive and smartly modulated

Jesse Blumberg, as Burke, sang with smooth tone and a surprising touch of humanity. Though he is the one who actually committed most of the murders, Blumberg found a sort of hidden innocence in the character.

The rest of the cast also contributed fine performances. Of these, Jesse Blumberg stood out as a conflicted, likable, but ultimately murderous Burke.

a comic tour de force

Other singers doing significant double duty were Jesse Blumberg, as Isabelle’s Léandre and, hilariously, the bumbling thief Tracollo

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

His attention to the text is as good as any singer’s I’ve heard

The role of Jesus in the Johannes-Passion is small but inevitably crucial; baritone Jesse Blumberg brought nobility to every word.

a golden-toned baritone

a baritone with a major upper register

All three of the singers sang splendidly and were well-suited to their roles. Significantly, they were exceptional when singing as an ensemble. A particularly poignant trio — although the characters were far apart, each in their own homes — was one of several high points in the performance.

Rachel Schutz as Johanna and Jesse Blumberg as Anthony bring much-needed light to the stage as the young lovers. Their glorious lyrical voices are captivating.

Easily one of the finest concert and recital singers of our generation

Jesse Blumberg — singing the bass arias, though more baritone than bass — made up in expressiveness what he may have lacked in low-lying heft. His rendition of the work’s glorious final aria, “Mache dich, mein Herze, rein” (“Make thyself clean, my heart”), was simply gorgeous.

Baritone Jesse Blumberg’s Lucifer sounded both suave and demonic, with a liquid upper register and wondrously cavernous low notes

The premiere of Kahane’s Six Packets of Oatmeal was sung by the excellent baritone Jesse Blumberg, whose charismatic performances are often a NYFOS highlight. Blumberg was superb, fully into the character of this unsettling series of songs.

...when Blumberg was able to shed Strompetta’s smock and sing with his “real” voice, his baritone was impressive, his mock-tragic aria just before intermission was particularly moving. . . Blumberg reminds us that there’s genuine sentiment behind all the slapstick.

...Jesse Blumberg sang Adonis with an appealing mix of freedom and control.

The soprano Emalie Savoy brought gleaming richness to the solo parts in the Latin texts. The Owen poems were sung with a blend of poignancy and grim honesty by the warm lyric tenor John Matthew Myers and the expressive baritone Jesse Blumberg, with David Rosenmeyer conducting the chamber orchestra, placed stage left.

Among the most impressive is baritone Jesse Blumberg, whose lustrous voice and winning artistry is lavished on four songs...

rich sound and dramatic authority

Lengthy recitatives sung by Blumberg in both Nos. 105 and 155 sounded as though he was speaking solely to you, so expressive were they.

Jesse Blumberg, artistic director of the Five Boroughs Music Festival, turns out to be an exemplary baritone as well...