Italian opera in bringing the art form back to life again. Romantic opera, which placed emphasis on the imagination and the emotions began to appear in the early 19th century, and because of its arias and music, gave more dimension to the extreme emotions which typified the theater of that era. In addition, it is said that fine music often excused glaring faults in character drawing and plot lines. Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) initiated the Romantic period. His first success was an "opera buffa" (comic opera), "La Cambiale di Matrimonio" (1810). His reputation still survives today through his "Barber of Seville" (1816), and
Gioachino Rossini matrimonio" ("The Marriage Contract"), was produced at Venice when he was a youth of 18 years. Two years before this he had already received the prize at the Conservatorio of Bologna for his cantata "Il pianto d'Armonia sulla morte d'Orfeo". Between 1810 and 1813 at Bologna, Rome, Venice and Milan, Rossini produced operas of varying success, most notably "La pietra del paragone" and "Il signor Bruschino", with its brilliant and unique overture. In 1813, "Tancredi" and "L'italiana in Algeri" were even bigger successes, and catapulted the 20-year-old composer to international fame. The libretto for "Tancredi" was an arrangement by Gaetano