Among her operatic roles James has performed Gluck's Orfeo in America and Canada, Dardano in Handel’s Amadigi in New York and Europe, and Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in Tokyo and Toronto.
[citation needed] She has premiered in operas by Gerald Barry, Jonathan Dove, Deirdre Gribbin, Wolfgang Rihm and John Woolrich.
[citation needed] James has filmed numerous straight acting roles for BBC, HTV and S4C and performed Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet for the National Theatre of Wales.
on the professorial staff in the department of Vocal and Opera Studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD).
She has also directed The Pirates of Penzance, Ruddigore, Acis and Galatea, Dido and Aeneas, Orpheus in the Underworld and Hercules for RWCMD.