Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A drama, such as a play, film, or television program, characterized by exaggerated emotions, stereotypical characters, and interpersonal conflicts.
- noun The dramatic genre characterized by this treatment.
- noun Behavior or occurrences having melodramatic characteristics.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Properly, a dramatic composition in which music is used, or an opera in the broad sense.
- noun A drama with incidental music, or an operetta with more or less spoken dialogue; a piece in which speech and song (or instrumental music) alternate. Also
melodram . - noun A form of the drama characterized by compositions in which the music is of but moderate importance or value, and the plot and scenes are of a decidedly romantic and sensational nature.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Formerly, a kind of drama having a musical accompaniment to intensify the effect of certain scenes. Now, a drama abounding in romantic sentiment and agonizing situations, with a musical accompaniment only in parts which are especially thrilling or pathetic. In opera, a passage in which the orchestra plays a somewhat descriptive accompaniment, while the actor speaks.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun archaic (
uncountable ) A kind ofdrama having a musical accompaniment to intensify the effect of certain scenes. - noun countable A drama abounding in romantic sentiment and agonizing situations, with a musical accompaniment only in parts which are especially thrilling or pathetic. In opera, a passage in which the orchestra plays a somewhat descriptive accompaniment, while the actor speaks; as, the melodrama in the grave digging scene of Beethoven's "Fidelio".
- noun uncountable, figuratively, colloquial Any situation or action which is blown out of proportion.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an extravagant comedy in which action is more salient than characterization
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Inevitably, his materials are those of what we call melodrama; he is at one, in the bare substance of his tales, with the manufacturers of the baldest shockers.
A Book of Prefaces 1918
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The melodrama is also hobbled with being too episodic and old fashioned, but Frank Borzage directs smoothly and Pickford gets one fantastic scene when her ranch home gets attacked by vicious rustlers.
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He managed to find the comedy in melodrama without undermining suspense or lapsing into self-referential cynicism.
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I picked it up out of mild curiosity, and read the whole thing in fits of laughter … I am one of those people to whom melodrama is extremely funny, and the bepurpled struggles of Meggie and Father Ralph, and the wilds of Australia … oh, the humanity!
Father Ralph and Humbert Humbert « Tales from the Reading Room 2010
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Do you think melodrama is another genre or is it a lesser genre?
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Standard Douglas Sirk-directed melodrama is an mildly entertaining showcase for Lucille Ball, looking fabulous.
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Standard Douglas Sirk-directed melodrama is an mildly entertaining showcase for Lucille Ball, looking fabulous.
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He managed to find the comedy in melodrama without undermining suspense or lapsing into self-referential cynicism.
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The melodrama is also hobbled with being too episodic and old fashioned, but Frank Borzage directs smoothly and Pickford gets one fantastic scene when her ranch home gets attacked by vicious rustlers.
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He managed to find the comedy in melodrama without undermining suspense or lapsing into self-referential cynicism.
bilby commented on the word melodrama
"So the super-groupies turn out to be Heathcote and Anthony. Their act was so far from being calculated that neither of them understands to this day why he did it. The act was thus: Heathcote sprang up from his seat, shook off the bigger people who grabbed him and leapt at the goose, held aloft by Muehl who was bigger than he and on a higher level. He succeeded in snatching it and was brought down by the opposition, so that contrary to every journalist's instinct Anthony reverted to schoolboy morality and ran off with the goose. Yah! Sucks! Boo! to the bully. The underdog is alive and well and living on a barge in Amsterdam. It was bloody good fun, and we cheered like workers at a melodrama. Muehl flapped around the stage brandishing his knife. Come his last truly great performance he will gut himself and fuck his own liver. What is life where art is concerned?"
- 'The Wet Dream Film Festival', Germaine Greer in Suck, 1971.
April 2, 2008