Melodrama

Melodrama
Definition: "Melos" is Greek for song, and the term "melodrama" was originally applied to all musical plays, including opera. In early nineteenth- century London, many plays were produced with a musical accompaniment that (as in modern motion pictures) served simply to fortify the emotional tone of the various scenes; the procedure was developed in part to circumvent the Licensing Act, which allowed "legitimate" plays only as a monopoly of the Drury Lane and Covent Garden theaters, but permitted musical entertain­ ments elsewhere. The term "melodrama" is now often applied to some of the typical plays, especially during the Victorian Period, that were written to be produced to musical accompaniment.