Daniela Barcellona was born in Trieste, where she pursued her musical and vocal studies under the guidance of Alessandro Vitiello. After making her debut in the title role of Tancredi at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in 1999, she established herself as a leading interpreter of “en travesti” roles, which she has since performed in the world’s most prestigious theatres. Awarded with the “Abbiati” Prize from Italian music critics, she has collaborated with conductors such as Abbado, Barenboim, Muti, Chailly, and Pappano, and with stage directors including McVicar, Carsen, Ronconi, Michieletto, and Martone.
In Italy she has been acclaimed, among many venues, at Teatro alla Scala (Europa riconosciuta, conducted by Muti; Iphigénie en Aulide; Il viaggio a Reims; Falstaff; Les Troyens; more recently Il nome della rosa by Filidei), at the Rossini Opera Festival (Semiramide, Bianca e Falliero, Adelaide di Borgogna, Sigismondo, L’Italiana in Algeri), at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, at the Arena and Teatro Filarmonico in Verona (Aida, L’Italiana in Algeri), at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (Orfeo ed Euridice), and at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
She has also appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic (Verdi’s Requiem), at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (Norma, La donna del lago), at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (L’Italiana in Algeri, Semiramide), at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (Semiramide, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, Adriana Lecouvreur), and at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin (Falstaff, conducted by Barenboim and staged by Martone), among others. She has performed Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Muti, at the Circo Massimo under Myung-Whun Chung, and for the 150th anniversary of the Requiem with the Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala; she has also sung Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Arena di Verona.
Her roles have also included Mrs. Quickly in Falstaff (Staatsoper Berlin, conducted by Mehta and directed by Martone; Aix-en-Provence Festival and Opéra de Lyon, directed by Kosky; Teatro Real in Madrid); Laura in La Gioconda (Teatro alla Scala); Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust (San Carlo); and Eduardo in Eduardo e Cristina (Rossini Opera Festival).
Among the awards she has received are the International Opera Award, the Rossini d’Oro, and the Olivier Award.
She debuted at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in the 2005/06 season with Semiramide and has returned for a recital (2006/07), Handel Concerto (2008/09), La favorite (2017/18), Il trittico (2022/23) and Un ballo in maschera and Adriana Lecouvreur (2023/24).