Melodramma (plural: melodrammi) is a 17th-century Italian term for a text to be set as an opera, or the opera itself. [1] In the 19th century, it was used in a much narrower sense by English writers to discuss developments in the early Italian libretto, e.g., Rigoletto and Un ballo in maschera. [2] Characteristic are the influence of French bourgeois drama, female instead of male protagonists, and the practice of opening the action with a chorus. [3]
It should not be confused with Melodrama (spelt with a single rather than a double m) in the sense either of Victorian stage melodrama (drama of exaggerated intensity) or of spoken declamation accompanied by background music (in Italian, melologo). [4]