Directing Reviews
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Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
San Francisco Opera Merola Program

Tricky Stravinsky piece beautifully rendered.

Most performances of Stravinsky's opera emphasize its pitiless, pasteboard side...but there is much more to this piece, and it all came through in this incisive and breathtakingly beautiful production.

Friday night's opening gleamed and glittered in all the right places, but it also paid tribute to the tender heart that beats below the surface of the opera's elegant symmetries. The result was a magnificent theatrical and musical experience, balancing emotion and wit in perfect proportion.

Director James Marvel allowed himself the liberty to go in whatever direction intrigued him, and the results were a tribute to his instincts. The staging abounded in small, finely observed moments (Anne's instinctive revulsion when Shadow first appears was a lovely touch), and Marvel seems to have worked carefully with the members of the ensemble to create stage tableaux that were both kinetic and visually striking.

- San Francisco Chronicle, Joshua Kosman

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Bizet's Carmen
Opera Grand Rapids

Carmen offers unforeseen depth in character

Opera Grand Rapids opened its 40th anniversary season Friday with a production of Georges Bizet's "Carmen," and four decades later, c'est magnifique!

Stage director James Marvel's production was lush in detail in the crowd scenes, sometimes stylized to emphasize the underlying motivations. His staging made good use of space, each act ending under the glare of an intense spotlight. When Carmen made her entrance, the temperature in the hall rose 10 degrees, charming not only men but women, too. Certainly, she was playful and sexy, but also a force to be reckoned with for the audience of 1,830 in DeVos Performance Hall.

Carmens often are one dimensional, remaining unchanged. This Carmen evolved into genuine love for Escamillo, adding to the depth of her demise. Don Jose developed remarkably as well. Where other Don Jose's simply are viscious at the end, Springer's descent into mental instability was gripping and effective.


- Jeff Kaczmarczyk, The Grand Rapids Press, Saturday, November 03, 2007

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Bizet's The Pearl Fishers
Opera Boston, 2007

Opera Boston brings rare Bizet to life

The company's vivid and airy new production, directed by James Marvel, opened last night, and all three performances sold out before the curtain went up. Marvel's staging, his first for the company, has a fanciful touch and a vibrant look, saturated with bright colors that seem about right for an opera set in ancient Ceylon. The production boasts plenty of dancing and shadow puppetry, put to attractive and poetic ends.

- Jeremy Eichler, Globe Staff, Opera Boston, Saturday, May 5, 2007

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Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor
New Orleans Opera, 2007

With darkly brooding passions, the New Orleans Opera Association took a stab at Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor last weekend, resulting in a bloody good show. James Marvel's direction was straightforward and effective, using that restraint to make the stronger impact. It was especially adept in capturing the opera's subtext of smoldering sexuality. The direction showed subdued restraint allowing the audience's chief focus to remain on the dazzling vocal lines. Jane Redding provided a compelling, splendid performance, hauntingly beautiful and delicately sculpted. Redding's acting made the production soar and made all the right moves, as this Lucia went off the edge, she didn't go over the top. Richard Zeller's acting also brought deeper dimensions to the character, making him less the cardboard villain of the piece and almost sympathetic as a man driven to desperation.

- Theodore Mahne, Times Picayune


Opera Company of North Carolina

The excellent production of this great work allowed all its tragic circumstances and beauty to reach every member of the audience, from neophyte to seasoned opera lover. The excellent work of James Marvel was evident throughout the performance. I especially note Marvel's careful touch in staging the encounters of the unfortunate lovers, especially the exchange of glances that suggest the deep feelings they share, and also the superb handling of the deranged Lucia's movements and gestures in the mad scene and made clear his total understanding of the complexities of opera performance.


- Martha Fawbush, Classical Voice of North Carolina, January 19, 2008

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Durang's Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge

Southern Repertory Theatre, New Orleans, LA - December, 2003

The Southern Repertory Theatre better have a doctor standing by. Their first preview nearly had me choking with laughter, by now people are probably in danger of laughing themselves to death in New Orleans' funniest comedy of the year. The production's energy and inventiveness never flag, and carry the script along to its ridiculous conclusion.

Director James Marvel has done, well, a marvelous job of extorting the full comic potential from this silliness. He successfully juggles verbal, visual, and slapstick humor, shapes one brilliant over the top scene after another without letting any go on for too long. And as with ornaments around the tree, he trims it all with knowing, little touches. Marvel is a Native New Orleanian making his local debut. Let's hope he's back to stay.

Within this set-up, what wonders of variety and shadings does this A-List of actors effect. For the rest of us, this might just be the best present of the season, leaving you with memories a-grinning long after the Christmas tree, tinsel, and stockings are gone.


- Ambush Magazine, December 19, 2003, Brian Sands

Wild Binge

A post modern comic tornado is currently wreaking merry havoc at the Southern Repertory Theatre. It resembles a 2 act Saturday Night Live skit, and I think the fans of the perdurable network offering will love seeing that sort of stylish knockabout really "live." You enjoy being with the cast that Wild Binge Director James Marvel has assembled and put through the paces. They create a confident ensemble mood, and each has memorable moments. In brief, a slapstick deconstruction job, decked with boughs of holly.


- The Gambit Weekly, December 09, 2003, Walt Donk

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Gounod's Faust
Augusta Opera, Augusta, GA - March, 2002

Named "Best Production of the Year" by the Augusta Chronicle

This post-modern take on grand opera…represents everything I find moving about the performing arts…understanding that the arts must always move forward…audiences were treated to a lively and kinetic reading that pushes the opera envelope. Great, grand stuff.


- Augusta Chronicle, April 4, 2002, Steven Uhles

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Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana
Opera of the Hamptons - June 2003

The Opera of the Hamptons opened their twelfth season in sparkling style…the audience really felt a part of the action and not like mere spectators. James Marvel, the Stage Director, demonstrated how to make full use of everything available to him. The realism of the settings, the movement of the singers as the plot unfolded added immeasurably to the sheer pleasure of hearing a cast comprised of voices that would grace any major opera house.

Dan's Papers Online, Roy Bradbrook

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Utah Festival Opera production hits high note
Opera Santa Barbara

LOGAN — It's a great year for the Utah Festival Opera. The operas this season are high-watermark productions for this company. The season opened last week with "The Marriage of Figaro." This production boasts a strong cast in terms of acting, and stage director James Marvel makes the characters realistic and believable.

- Deseret Morning News, Rebecca C. Howard

'Figaro': Plot complex, music joyous
Opera Santa Barbara

LOGAN - BOTTOM LINE: a solid, if not life-changing performance of a cheeky comedy classic.

- The Salt Lake Tribune, Christy Karras

Lyric Opera's 'Figaro' superbly executed
Asheville Lyric Opera - April 3, 2005

On Friday evening in the Diana Wortham Theatre, the enthusiastic audience’s many smiles, almost constant laughter and sustained applause in response to the Asheville Lyric Opera’s performance of this great opera were ample that its magic has remained by time. Stage Director James Marvel's production is the best work of the ALO's 2004-05 season. The audience approval was expressed through cheers and applause throughout the evening.

- Martha Fawbush

Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro
- Westfield Symphony Orchestra - April 2001

This past week saw another highly successful production by the Westfield Symphony Orchestra. This rendition of the Marriage of Figaro would have pleased the composer himself- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The overall effect offered an excellent fusion of orchestra, voice and staging. The production was consummated joyfully without a hitch and earned a rousing and well-deserved standing ovation. Exciting and engaging stage directions were created by James Marvel. In such a glorious manner did the 2000-2001 season of the WSO draw to a close.

The Westfield Leader / The Times, David Palladino

"A MARVEL-OUS PAIR"
Printed in Classical New Jersey - June 6, 2001

Marriage of Figaro, Westfield Symphony Orchestra. Director, James Marvel

The Westfield Symphony Orchestra's presentation of The Marriage of Figaro was a vocal and musical treat as well as a testament to the power of the human imagination. This year featured a minimal and quite successful staging by James Marvel, who showed how a few well placed props and a bit of imagination can carry the show. A final light touch was provided at the end by director Marvel when Suzanna, Figaro, and his long-lost parents all posed for a family snapshot with a flash camera!

- Barbara Tomson

La Traviata, Boheme Opera Company. Director, James Marvel

... But the real story in this production was James Marvel's stage direction. Frankly, when faced with attending another consumption laden Traviata my cynical attitude is something like "We've got drugs for this. Get this girl a shot." So, imagine how astonishingly touching it was that director Marvel elected to not make any consumption references! Not one cough intruded like a warning flare. And what emerged from this simple decision was the ability of each audience member to make Violetta's illness be whatever touched them most closely. This was not thrust upon us in some didactic manner, but was allowed to happen by removing a piece of unnecessary tradition.

There was one more surprising and effective bit of staging. In the Act III card scene, most productions wait until Germont's vocal entrance for his angry entry. Here, Marvel had Germont enter after the Spanish Dance sequence and watch the proceedings from the entry lobby. The effect was to give the audience a point of view. How is Father taking this scene? What must he be thinking? So, when Germont finally came down the steps and confronted his son, it was coming from an emotional place we had all witnessed, even felt a part of, and was astonishingly powerful. We've come to trust Boheme Opera to supply good singers. Now we have a standard of acting which was uniformly excellent as well.


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Philip Glass' Galileo Galilei
Boston University

The 90-minute work, which premiered in 2002, arrived in Boston last night as part of this year's Boston University Fall Fringe Festival. And the performance, under the leadership of director James Marvel was nothing short of brilliant. Marvel's direction was - well, it's true - a marvel of style and economy, which took Galileo's once revolutionary idea that the earth revolves around the sun as a basis for staging without being heavy-handed. And Chaffee's charming choreography was integrated seamlessly, a credit to both artists.

- Boston Herald, Sunday, October 31, 2004

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Puccini's Tosca
Opera Santa Barbara

Under James Marvel's brilliant direction...Puccini's Tosca has never seemed more real and more horrifying. As Tosca, weeping in Scarpia's office hears Cavaradossi's cries, a painting on the wall behind her gradually becomes transparent...becoming a window into the next room, where her lover is being tortured. Great art makes human suffering and brutality visible again, and just in time. Still, beauty is the real point of it all...and Opera Santa Barbara's production gives us real beauty, even as we weep for poor Tosca.

- The Santa Barbara Independent, James Donelan

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Puccini's Turandot
Utah Festival Opera

Utah Festival Opera's heady 'Turandot' casts a magical spell in Logan.

Dozens of grisly skulls from wannabe bridegrooms lined the visually stunning set in Utah Festival Opera's opening production. James Marvel's stage direction formed a cogent blend of elements incorporating the opera's old-Italian origins and its Asian location. His wizardry created an unforgettable production. Bottom Line: Rearrange schedules, change plans and run to see this vocally and visually stunning new production.

- Salt Lake Tribune, Robert Coleman

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Puccini's La Boheme
Opera Santa Barbara - November, 2002

A Passionate Connection in La Boheme.

Musically, dramatically, and theatrically this may be the company's best work yet. The love story at the heart of "La Boheme" is particularly affecting in the new production at Opera Santa Barbara. Mimi and Rodolfo have rarely seemed so real, and the other delights of Puccini's masterpiece fall into place around them with a rousing vitality…There is no mistaking their passionate connection. [Musetta's] teasing waltz leads into an ensemble of enormous complexity that sends the audience out for intermission exhilarated…Every one of the roles was projected with fine style.

- Santa Barbara News Press, November 26, 2002, Michael Smith

One of the wonders of Puccini's opera is its unique mix of boisterous comedy with poignant realism. The end of Act III is such a moment. Director James Marvel placed Musetta and Marcello in the center upstage and proposed a series of knockabout actions, including Musetta dumping a glass of champagne on Marcello's head…It's a dogfight…violent and dramatic. Meanwhile, he had Mimi and Rodolfo moving very slowly toward one another across the front of the stage, their hearts breaking. The voices rose and one of musical theater's best scenes sprang to life again…filling the room with soaring, rapturous melody and pure emotion. It was impossible not to be swept away.


- Santa Barbara News Press, November 22, 2002

The third act…of Opera Santa Barbara's La Boheme had me gasping…with a depth and beauty I can only describe as cinematic - my best compliment. It was strikingly memorable, sung, played, acted, and decorated with all the strength of a big city opera put on by seasoned professionals - and something more. I wish the whole show had kept opening, though I saw many a wet eye leaving the theatre. Opera Santa Barbara has evolved powerfully. With magnificence like that shown in the third act…this could be the artistic troupe to bring our city fame.


- The Santa Barbara Independent, December 6, 2002, D.J. Palladino

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Puccini's Madama Butterfly
Virginia Opera, Fairfax, VA - October 24, 2003

The Virginia Opera gave a completely traditional and completely satisfying performance of Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" Friday night. The voices were excellent, as they usually are in Virginia Opera productions. What distinguished the performance was the fine acting in the principal roles...under the direction of James Marvel, whose experience in Noh and Kabuki theatre could be sensed in the stage action's evocative understatement. All were convincing in this drama of love, betrayal, and death. Butterfly is best done, as this performance was, in the time- honored style.

- The Washington Post, Monday October 27, 2003, Joseph McLellan


Piedmont Opera Theatre, Winston-Salem, NC - October, 2001

Blissful: this 'Butterfly' is dressed with color and beauty.

Opera doesn't get much better than this. Piedmont Opera Theatre is presenting a magnificent, take-your-breath-away production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly… [When] Butterfly commits suicide - the way it's done here is unforgettable. When she thrusts the knife in, bloody red colors fill the white tiles on the wall. It's downright chilling… Scarcely anything falls short in director James Marvel's thoughtful and insightful staging. The lead singers…act in a way that tells the story directly and believably. One of this production's finest musical and dramatic moments happens at the end of Act 1, during Pinkerton's extended love duet with Butterfly. It covers a lot of ground, becoming one of the most elaborate and convincing seductions in opera.

- Winston-Salem Journal, October 6, 2001, Ken Keuffel

Memorable Opera.

The production was wonderful, the voices were beautiful, and everything about it was just great…I have seen this opera over and over, and this was the best I have ever seen it. This praise was echoed many times over among audience members…I think that (director) James Marvel brought each of the leads to an interesting place.


- Winston-Salem Journal, Tuesday, October 9, 2001, K. Bost

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Verdi's La Traviata
Boheme Opera, NJ - April 2001

The ensuing acts were so wonderful that the evening turned into an artistic triumph. The performance took place before an ultimately ecstatic audience of 1,900. Director James Marvel took a traditional approach yet added many little visual touches to give more impact to the action on stage. He resisted the temptation to over-dramatize the confrontation in Act III and the death scene in the finale. In other words, like the leading singers on stage, he got this production just right."

- Bloomberg News, May 2, 2001, Albert Cohen

La Traviata was not my favorite Verdi opera…until last Friday evening, that is. That was when I saw the first of two performances of Boheme Opera's production. [This production] may have been Boheme's finest effort to date. I feel confident that most, if not all, of the members of the two sell-out audiences that saw the production would agree with that assessment. This Traviata had a splendid cast with first rate voices. They were skillfully directed on a stage filled with gorgeous scenery. A word must be said early on about the work of stage director James Marvel, who brought to these familiar characters a humanity that they do not often possess. The production was marked by many small touches that made clear that these were not remote, stock operatic characters but human beings caught up in events beyond their control.

One such touch: In the early moments of Act I, Marvel highlighted Baron Douphol's jealousy and possessiveness toward Violetta in a revealing way. The final act death scene was heartbreaking.


- The Trenton Times, May 2, 2001, Donald Delany

Trenton's Boheme Opera offered one of its strongest productions yet in a sumptuous performance of Verdi's La Traviata. Director James Marvel truly caught the flavor of intimacy marred by tragedy in 'Traviata,' he coached actors' performances from these singers.


- The Star Ledger, April 30, 2001, Willa Conrad

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Verdi's Rigoletto
Utah Festival Opera - 2004

Curse of Rigoletto broken with Triumphant Performance.

Utah Festival Opera's potent opening night set a new artistic benchmark for the young company. An impressive cast and artistic staff charged the story of the hunchbacked jester with vitality....energetic pacing and purposeful stage direction by James Marvel made the opera's three hours speed by. A dynamic men's chorus and lavishly detailed set contributed to the triumphant production.

- Salt Lake Tribune, Robert Coleman

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