Highly acclaimed for "expansive legato lines, grounded in a superbly secure and solid technique and a charming softness and warmth of timbre, combined with a freedom in coloratura passages that remains unparalleled", Daniela Barcellona was born in Trieste, where she completed her musical studies under the guidance of Alessandro Vitiello. After winning prestigious international competitions including the “Adriano Belli” award in Spoleto, the “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 defining interpreter of “en travesti” roles, which have brought her to walk the most prestigious opera houses worldwide, from New York’s Metropolitan Opera to La Scala in Milan, from the Royal Opera House in London to the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, from the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich to the Teatro Real in Madrid, from the Salzburg Festival to the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, to name a few.

Awarded the “Premio Abbiati”, she has worked with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Baremboim, 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 Mehtaand 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 met with acclaim 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 and 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,  La 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 Festival 2018.

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 in Berlin (Les Troyens by Berlioz, La Gioconda), New York’s Metropolitan (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 Elysées in Paris (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 Vienna Staatsoper (Il barbiere di Siviglia, L’Italiana in Algeri), the Grand Théatre in Ginevra (Semiramide), the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (Puccini’s Triptych, 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, Romeo 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 Radio France Occitanie Festival Montpellier (La donna del lago), Las Palmas’ Opera Season (Il barbiere di Siviglia, I Capuleti ed i Montecchi, La Favorite), the Opéra Royal 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 also performed in Verdi’s Requiem with Konzerthausorchester Berlin led by Juraj Valčuha and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti, in Heroic Bel Canto recital with works by Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini in Melbourne and in Rossini’s Stabat mater at the Baalbeck International Festival in Lebanon with the Bucharest radio chamber Orchestra, conducted by Toufic Maatouk.

Recently, Daniela Barcellona sang Mrs Quickly in Falstaff at the Staatsoper Berlin conducted by Zubin Mehta and directed by Mario Martone, at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and at the Opéra de Lyon directed by Barry Kosky; Duchess Federica in Luisa Miller conducted by Michele Mariotti at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma; Madame de la Haltière in Cendrillon at the Opéra National de Paris; Laura in La Gioconda at the Teatro alla Scala; Ulrica in Un ballo in Maschera at the Verbier Festival and at the Liceu in Barcelona where she also interpreted Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica and Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice in Trieste; she sang Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust for the first time at the Teatro San Carlo and Eduardo in Eduardo e Cristina at the ROF, and debuted at the Teatro Colon as Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena. She performed Verdi’s Requiem conducted by Myung-Whun Chung at Circo Massimo, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Arena di Verona and she sang in two recitals at the ABAO Bilbao Opera and on the occasion of the Wexford Festival.

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, the “Laurence Olivier Award” for Best Achievement in Opera,  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, I Classical & Sunday Times 2018 Recordings of the Year. It also received the Opera Award 2019 as “Best Recording Complete Opera”.

Two DVDs of Falstaff have recently been released, one recorded at the Teatro Real in Madrid in a new production by Laurent Pelly, the second, a production by Mario Martone, released by C Major Entertainment and recorded at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. This year, 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 have been released.