Belisario
![A grayscale portrait of a man in his late thirties. He has wavy, dark hair and a neat mustache and beard.](/Images/godic/202412/23/Gaetano_Donizetti_12313.jpg")
![Carolina Ungher who created the role of Antonina](/Images/godic/202412/23/CarolineUngher2313.jpg")
Belisario (Belisarius) is a tragedia lirica (tragic opera) in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto after Luigi Marchionni's adaptation of Eduard von Schenk's play, Belisarius, first staged in Munich in 1820 and then (in Italian) in Naples in 1826. The plot is loosely based on the life of the famous general Belisarius of the 6th century Byzantine Empire.