Melodrama

Definitions

1. A kind of drama having a musical accompaniment to intensify the effect of certain scenes.
   archaic, uncountable
2. A drama abounding in romantic sentiment and agonizing situations, with a musical accompaniment only in parts which are especially thrilling or pathetic.
   countable
3. A passage in which the orchestra plays a somewhat descriptive accompaniment, while the actor speaks.
   countable
4. Any situation or action which is blown out of proportion.
   colloquial, figuratively, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“The grave-digging scene in Beethoven's “Fidelio” has much melodrama.”

“Rudolf was the bold, bad Baron of traditional melodrama. Irene was young, as pretty as a picture, fresh from a music academy in England. He was the scion of an ancient noble family; she an orphan without money or friends.”

CEFR level