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
Elisabetta Manfredini-Guarmani back in Bologna to sing the title role in a revival of Paisiello's "Nina, ossia La pazza per amore" at the Teatro Marsigli. Manfredini-Guarmani first worked with Gioachino Rossini in May 1811, when she sang in Haydn's oratorio "The Seasons". The special performance of the oratorio (sung in Italian as "Le quattro stagioni") was in celebration of the birth of the Napoleon II two months earlier and was conducted from the harpsichord by Rossini. When Rossini wrote his opera "Ciro in Babilonia", he composed the role of Almira specifically for Manfredini-Guarmani's voice. Following its premiere at the Teatro Comunale on