Stage Director
Stage Director James Marvel made his Lincoln Center debut for the Juilliard Opera Center with Maestro James Conlon conducting. In March 2011, he made his debut with Opera Africa in Pretoria and Johannesburg, South Africa with a new production of Carmen that was hailed as “stupendous” by the local press. The tremendous success of this production has led to a return engagement to direct a new production of Un Ballo in Maschera in February, 2012.
In 2012, James will direct the United States premier of Cavalli’s Eliogabalo for the Gotham Chamber Opera in NYC. James made his Italian debut at the Teatro Comunale in Sulmona, Italy in 2008 and will return to Sulmona in 2011 to direct L’Elisir D’Amore.
In 2009, James made his debut in Seoul, South Korea and directed a critically acclaimed new production of Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria for the Wolf Trap Opera Company. In 2010, James returned to Wolf Trap to direct Mozart’s Zaide and made his Canadian debut directing Rape of Lucretia.
James was named Classical Singer Magazine’s “2008 – Stage Director of the Year.”
Since his professional directing debut in 1996, he has directed over 80 productions in the United States, England, Scotland, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. His new production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress for the San Francisco Opera Merola Program was named “Best Production of the Year” by the San Francisco Chronicle. James served as Co-Director with Henryk Baranowski at Teatr Wielki in Lodz, Poland on Philip Glass’ Akhnaten, which won 2 Golden Mask Awards for Best Direction and Best Production of the Year.
Other career highlights include groundbreaking new productions of Les Pecheurs De Perles for Opera Boston; La Voix Humaine at Florence Gould Hall in New York City and for the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Belgium; and Tosca at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.
President, Novo Artists
Born in New York City, Celia P. Novo attended New York University as a double major in Biology and Music and also holds a Master of Science degree in Advanced Biological Studies from Fordham University. She worked as a senior research assistant in the departments of Biochemistry, Neurology, and Pediatric Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and as a New York State certified teacher, she taught Biology, Chemistry, and Developmental Biology at the college preparatory level.
In a dramatic career change, she became personal business manager to the late Arleen Auger in 1983. Mrs. Novo and her husband, Guy P. Novo, founded the Arleen Auger Memorial Fund in 1995, the purpose of which is to identify needy and talented young singers who wish to follow in Ms. Auger's esteemed footsteps, and reward them with study grants and scholarships.
That same year, she founded Novo Artists, Inc., an international artist management company which represents conductors, stage directors, set designers, choreographers, singers, and instrumentalists throughout the world. She is also Founder and President of Novo Consulting.