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
Rossini Opera Festival established in 1980 with the aim of making the world more aware of Rossini's neglected operas and presenting all of them in collaboration with the G. Ricordi & Co. music publishing house, which published their critical editions. Of the approximately three dozen operas written, only a handful are regularly presented. On 13 August 1993, the Italian parliament unanimously approved the Special Law N. 319 "Regulations in support of the Rossini Opera Festival", which recognizes the Pesaro Festival's achievements in the reviving of Rossini's operas as entitled to be included among the state-supervised works of restoration of the national artistic heritage.