Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti with an Italian libretto by Giovanni Ruffini and the composer, after a libretto by Angelo Anelli (it) for Stefano Pavesi's opera Ser Marcantonio (1810). Donizetti's opera was first performed on 3 January 1843 by the Théâtre-Italien at the Salle Ventadour in Paris.

At the time of the opera's composition in 1842, Donizetti had just been appointed music director and composer for the imperial court of Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria.

In the tradition of opera buffa, the opera makes reference to the stock characters of the commedia dell'arte. Pasquale is recognizable as the blustery Pantalone, Ernesto as the lovesick Pierrot, Malatesta as the scheming Scapino, and Norina as a wily Columbina. The false Notary echoes a long line of false officials as operatic devices.

At its premiere Don Pasquale was performed by four of the most celebrated singers of the day and was an immediate success. It was recognized at the time as, and is still considered, Donizetti's comic masterpiece, and remains one of the most popular of his 66 operas, as well as one of the three most popular Italian comic operas, the other two being Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Donizetti's own L'elisir d'amore.

The first performance in Italy was at La Scala, Milan on 17 April 1843 with Ottavia Malvani (Norina), Napoleone Rossi (Pasquale), Leone Corelli (Ernesto), and Achille De Bassini (Malatesta). Its first performance in Vienna was at the Kärtnertortheater (in Italian) on 14 May 1843, a production in which Donizetti participated and added the comic baritone duet "Cheti, cheti, immantinente" from a discarded portion of his unperformed opera L'ange de Nisida. In England it was first presented on 29 June 1843 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London (in Italian).

The opera was translated into French by Gustave Vaëz and Alphonse Royer and given in Brussels on 11 August 1843, Lille on 9 November 1843, and at the Théâtre d'Orléans in New Orleans on 7 January 1845. The first Australian performance was presented in Sydney on 12 October 1854 at the Royal Victoria Theatre.