Daniela Barcellona is a “much appreciated singer who can count on a broad phrasing, supported by a solid, robust and consistent technique. The silkiness of her voice is heightened by a fascinating timbre and her coloratura remains today unparalleled”. Daniela Barcellona was born in Trieste, where she completed her musical studies under the guidance of Alessandro Vitiello. After winning numerous prestigious international competitions like the “Adriano Belli” award in Spoleto, “Iris Adami Corradetti” in Padua, and the “Pavarotti International Voice Competition” in Philadelphia, she made her debut in the title role of Tancredi at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in 1999, establishing herself as a reference interpreter for “en travesti” roles, which have brought her to appear on the stages of the world’s most prestigious opera houses, including La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House in London, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Salzburg Festival, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, to name but a few.

Awarded with the “Premio Abbiati”, she has worked with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Muti, Myung-whun Chung, Riccardo Chailly, James Levine, Antonio Pappano, Gianandrea Noseda, Alberto Zedda, Roberto Abbado, Valery Gergiev, Bruno Campanella, Sir Colin Davis, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Lorin Maazel, Michele Mariotti, Kent Nagano, Georges Prêtre, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Juraj Valčuha, Zubin Mehta and with such stage directors as David McVicar, Robert Carsen, Luca Ronconi, Damiano Michieletto, Pierluigi Pizzi, Mario Martone, Hugo de Ana, Paul Curran, David Alden, Yannis Kokkos, and Emilio Sagi.

In Italy she has been acclaimed numerous times at La Scala in Milan (Lucrezia Borgia, Iphigénie en Aulide, Il viaggio a Reims, La donna del lago, Luisa Miller, Falstaff, Les Troyens) where she also sang Europa Riconosciuta conducted by Riccardo Muti on 7 December 2004 for the Opera House’s historical re-opening, at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro (Tancredi, La donna del lago, Semiramide, Bianca e Falliero, Adelaide di Borgogna, Maometto II, Sigismondo, Stabat Mater, Petite messe solennelle marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death), at the Teatro Regio di Torino (Anna Bolena, Tancredi, Don Carlo, Samson et Dalila, Verdi’s Requiem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater), at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (Il barbiere di Siviglia, La fiamma, Cenerentola, L’Italiana in Algeri, Tancredi, Semiramide), at the Comunale in Bologna (Giulio Cesare) and Florence (Il barbiere di Siviglia, L’Italiana in Algeri, Tancredi, Orfeo ed Euridice), at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Verdi’s Requiem, Il viaggio a Reims, Petite messe solennelle), at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, at the Sferisterio in Macerata (Norma and Verdi’s Requiem), at the Arena and Teatro Filarmonico in Verona (Verdi’s Requiem, Aida, L’Italiana in Algeri), at the Teatro Regio in Parma (Norma), at the San Carlo in Napoli (Anna Bolena, Orfeo ed Euridice), at the Carlo Felice in Genoa (Cenerentola, Verdi’s Requiem, La favorite), at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo (Stabat Mater, Norma), at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste (Ginevra di Scozia by Simon Mayr, Tancredi, L’Italiana in Algeri), at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Paisiello’s Missa defunctorum) and she made her debut at the opening concert of the Donizetti Opera 2018 festival.

Outside Italy she has been invited by the Berliner Philharmoniker (Verdi’s Requiem), Munich’s Rundfunkorchester (Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck), the London Symphony Orchestra (Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz, Verdi’s Requiem), the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Les Troyens by Berlioz, La Gioconda), New York’s Metropolitan Opera (Norma, La donna del lago), the Royal Opera House of London (La donna del lago, Semiramide), Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Falstaff conducted by Daniel Barenboim and directed by Mario Martone), the Opéra national de Paris, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (I Capuleti e i Montecchi, La donna del lago, Don Carlo), the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich (L’Italiana in Algeri, Semiramide), the Teatro Real in Madrid (Semiramide, Tancredi, The Rake’s Progress, Aida, Falstaff, Un ballo in maschera), the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (Semiramide, La favorite), the Palau de les Arts in Valencia (Les Troyens, Aida), the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao (I Capuleti e i Montecchi, L’Italiana in Algeri, Cavalleria rusticana), the Staatsoper in Vienna (Il barbiere di Siviglia, L’Italiana in Algeri), the Grand Théâtre in Geneve (Semiramide), the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (Puccini’s Il trittico, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis), the Semperoper in Dresden (Verdi’s Requiem, L’Italiana in Algeri, La favorite), the Tel Aviv Opera (Norma), the Oviedo Opera (L’Italiana in Algeri, Tancredi), the Salzburg Festival (Verdi’s Requiem, Roméo et Juliette by Gounod, La donna del lago, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, I pellegrini al sepolcro di Nostro Signore, Aida), the Sydney Opera House (Verdi’s Requiem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater), the Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier (La donna del lago), Las Palmas’ Opera Season (Il barbiere di Siviglia, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, La favorite) and the Opéra de Wallonie in Liege (La donna del lago), in Tokyo (Tancredi, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Stabat Mater, Bajazet by Vivaldi), ABAO Olbe (Don Carlos, Semiramide), the NCPA Opera in Beijing and the Festival Verdi in Tbilisi (Aida).

She has also performed Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Bucharest Radio Chamber Orchestra conducted by Toufic Maatouk at the Baalbeck Festival; in the recital Heroic Bel Canto, featuring music by Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini at Victorian Opera in Melbourne; Verdi’s Requiem with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin conducted by Juraj Valčuha, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti, and also at the Church of San Marco in Milan with the Choir and Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala for the 150th anniversary of the work’s composition; as well as in two recitals at ABAO Bilbao Opera and at the Wexford Festival.

Her recent engagements include Aida at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; Il trovatore at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste; Tristan und Isolde at the Carlo Felice Opera House in Genoa and at ABAO Bilbao Opera; Falstaff at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona; and the world premiere of Francesco Filidei’s Il nome della rosa at Teatro alla Scala, an opera based on Umberto Eco’s novel and directed by Damiano Michieletto; as well as Stabat Mater with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michele Mariotti in Kawasaki and Tokyo; and L’italiana in Algeri at the Rossini Opera Festival.

The 2026/2027 season engagements include The Rake’s Progress at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; her debut as Fricka in Die Walküre at ABAO Bilbao Opera; L’italiana in Algeri at the Carlo Felice Opera House in Genoa; Aida at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste; and Tristan und Isolde at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Concert appearances also include Petite messe solennelle at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza and participation in the concert marking the 75th anniversary of the Wexford Festival Opera.

Some of the awards she has been granted include the “Lucia Valentini-Terrani” award, the “Aureliano Pertile” award, the “International Opera Award”, the “CD Classica”, the “Rossini d’oro”, the “San Giusto d’Oro”, the “Sigillo trecentesco di Trieste”, the “Oscar della lirica” award, and the “Laurence Olivier Award”, the “Pesaro Music Award” and the “Tutto Verdi International Award”.

She has made numerous recordings, including albums dedicated to Scarlatti and Pergolesi (released by Sony); works by Rossini including Stabat Mater, Petite messe solennelle, Giovanna D’Arco, two editions of Tancredi, Bianca e Falliero, Adelaide di Borgogna, Sigismondo, and Il viaggio a Reims; Bellini (two editions of Norma); Mayr and Meyerbeer (respectively Ginevra di Scozia and Margherita d’Anjou); as well as Verdi’s Requiem (a celebrated recording with Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker) and the monumental Les Troyens by Berlioz, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

A complete studio recording of Rossini’s last and one of his greatest Italian operas, Semiramide, starring Albina Shagimuratova, conducted by Sir Mark Elder, has been released by Opera Rara in 2018. The album was awarded the Recording of the Month by Opera, Gramophone & BBC Music Magazine and was chosen as one of the Gramophone, IClassical & Sunday Times 2018 Recordings of the Year. It also received the Opera Award 2019 as “Best Recording Complete Opera”. Two DVDs of Falstaff have been recently released, one recorded at the Teatro Real in Madrid in the production by Laurent Pelly, the second, a production by Mario Martone, released by C Major Entertainment and recorded at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. In 2022, moreover, the recordings of Verdi’s Requiem conducted by Gianandrea Noseda at the Verbier Festival and of the Stabat Mater conducted by Gustavo Gimeno on the podium of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg were released.