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MELODRAMA (a coined word from Gr. µEXos, See also: species of dramatic composition
.
As the word implies, " melodrama " is properly a dramatic mixture of See also: music and See also: action, and was first applied to a See also: form of dramatic musical composition in which music accompanied the spoken words and the action, but in which there was no singing
.
The first example of such a See also: work has generally been taken to be the See also: Pygmalion of J
.
J
.
See also: Rousseau, produced in 1995
.
This is the source of romantic dramas depending on sensational incident with exaggerated appeals to conventional sentiment rather than on
See also: play of character, and in which dramatis personae follow conventional types—the villain, the See also: hero wrongfully charged with See also: crime, the persecuted heroine, the adventuress, &c
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At first the music was of some importance, forming practically a See also: running accompaniment suitable to the situations—but this has gradually disappeared, and, if it remains, is used mainly to emphasize particularly strong situations, or to bring on or off the stage the various See also: principal characters
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Such plays first became popular in See also: France at the beginning of the lgth century
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One of the most prolific writers of melodramas at that See also: period was R
.
C
.
G. de Pixericourt (1773-1844)
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The titles of some of his plays give a sufficient indication of their character; e.g
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Victor, ou l'enfant de la foal (1799); Carlina, ou l'enfant du mystere (18ot); Le Monastere abandonne, ou la malediction paternelle (1816) . Another form of melodrama came from the same source, but See also: developed on lines which laid more emphasis on the music, and is of some importance in the See also: history of See also: opera
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Probably the first of thistype is to be found in Georg See also: Benda's AriadneaufNaxos (1y74)
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The most, See also: familiar of such melodramas is Gay's See also: Beggar's Opera
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In these the See also: dialogue is entirely spoken
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In true opera the spoken dialogue was replaced by recitative
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It may be noticed that the speaking of some parts of the dialogue is not sufficient to class an opera as a " melodrama " in this sense, as is proved by the spoken See also: grave-digging scene, accompanied' by music, in Fidelio, and the See also: incantation scene in Der Freischiitz
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To this the See also: English See also: term " declamation " is usually applied;- the Germans use Melodram
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But see OPERA
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