"James Marvel" is a stage director known for traditional and avant-garde stagings of operatic productions. Marvel was born and raised in New Orleans and received a Bachelor of Arts/B.A. in World Literature from Sarah Lawrence College and Oxford University, and an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts from the International Actor Training Academy. He also studied at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.

Marvel's 2005 production of Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress was deemed "breathtakingly beautiful" with "stage tableaux that were both kinetic and visually striking" by the San Francisco Chronicle. In November 2008, Marvel made his Lincoln Center debut, directing a trilogy of one-act operas by Modest Mussorgsky, Ernst Krenek and Dmitri Shostakovich at the Juilliard School.

Credits in the United States include shows at Florence Gould Hall in New York City; The Kimmel Center of Philadelphia; The Huntington Theatre of Boston; The Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco; and the Bing Theatre in Los Angeles. Marvel's international work has taken him to the 5th International Theatre Festival in Budapest, Hungary; the Istropolitana Theatre Festival in Bratislava, Slovakia; the Viola Stage in Prague, Czech Republic; Teatr Wielki in Lodz, Poland; the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland; and the Wadham Theatre and Burton-Taylor Theatre in Oxford, England.

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It's a very appropriate show to be doing around Halloween because it's very dark and mysterious. There are some great chorus scenes and some dark stuff and funny stuff as well. It's a really perfect balanced show in many regards.

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There are a lot of opportunities to try out new ideas and new things through the music. I think that Gounod has done a magnificent job relating mystery and sensations and moods with the music.

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