melodrama

plural melodramas · plural melodramata

1. archaicuncountableA kind of drama having a musical accompaniment to intensify the effect of certain scenes.
2. countableA drama abounding in romantic sentiment and agonizing situations, with a musical accompaniment only in parts which are especially thrilling or pathetic.
3. countableoperaA passage in which the orchestra plays a somewhat descriptive accompaniment, while the actor speaks.

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

   1 more example

   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.

   1956, Delano Ames, chapter 9, in Crime out of Mind

4. colloquialfigurativelyuncountableAny situation or action which is blown out of proportion.