Marcos Darbyshire was born in Córdoba, Argentina, where he trained as a pianist, specializing in chamber music and song accompaniment. In 2008, he moved to Germany, completed an internship at the Frankfurt Opera under Claus Guth, and subsequently studied opera directing at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre.

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From 2012 to 2016, he worked as an assistant director at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (Flemish Opera, Belgium), where he assisted renowned directors such as Peter Konwitschny, David Alden, David Hermann, Robert Carsen, Tatjana Gürbaca, Calixto Bieito, Mariame Clément, Kornél Mundruczó, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and led numerous revivals.

His work as a freelance assistant director and revival director brought him to prestigious opera houses such as the Staatstheater Nürnberg, Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Teatro Real (Madrid), Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (Valencia), the Salzburg Festival, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

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Since 2017, Marcos Darbyshire has been working as a freelance director. His artistic focus lies both on bel canto operas and contemporary opera. His productions include Don Pasquale at the Theater an der Wien (2017), Lucia di Lammermoorat the Staatstheater Darmstadt (2019), and L’elisir d’amore at the Dutch National Opera (2021). In the 2021/22 season, he directed Nabucco at the Staatstheater Mainz and María de Buenos Aires at the Theater St. Gallen. In 2023, he staged the Austrian premiere of Philip Venables’ chamber opera Denis & Katya at the Theater an der Wien, as well as Rossini’s double bill La Scala di Seta / Il Signor Bruschino at Opera Zuid (Netherlands). ​In the 2024/25 season, he directed the Austrian premiere of Georg Friedrich Haas’ opera Liebesgesang, and Tosca for the St. Gallen Open Air Festival, for which he was nominated as Best Director in the magazine Opernwelt. 

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His most recent production of L'occasione fa il ladro is currently available for streaming on the platforms OperaVision and ORFIII Austria. 

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Darbyshire's interest in education brought him to the Academy of Arts in Oslo, where he directed Giulio Cesare with the Master Opera students in November 2025.