Noun

1. A kind of drama having a musical accompaniment to intensify the effect of certain scenes (archaic).
2. 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".
3. Any situation or action which is blown out of proportion.