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Melodrama: Difference between revisions
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[[File: | [[File:Pygmalion.jpg|200px|thumb|right| Jean-Jacques Rousseau- Written in 1762. One of the first melodramas]] | ||
"''''''Melodrama''''' [Gr.,=song-drama], originally a spoken text with musical background, as in Greek drama. The form was popular in the 18th cent., when its composers included Georg Benda, J. J. Rousseau, and W. A. Mozart, among others. Modern examples of the true music melodrama are found in Richard Strauss's setting of Tennyson's Enoch Arden, and in Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. J. J. Rousseau's melodrama Pygmalion (1762; first performed 1770) helped create a vogue for stage plays in which the action was generally romantic, full of violent action, and often characterized by the final triumph of virtue. The common use of the term melodrama refers to sentimental stage plays of this sort. The leading authors of melodramas in the early 19th century were Guilbert de Pixérécourt of France and the German August von Kotzebue. The term was used extensively in England in the 19th century as a device to circumvent the law that limited legitimate plays to certain theaters. Melodrama was one of the most-popular of theatrical genres of the 19th century in England and America, its "tear-jerking" style easily made the transition to film, radio and television, where they are represented by the maudlin excesses and unbelievable coincidences of contemporary soap operas. The term is now applied to all scripts with overdrawn characterizations, smashing climaxes, and appeal to sentiment. Famous examples of stage melodramas include East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood and Ten Nights in a Barroom by W. W. Pratt. (Columbia)." | "''''''Melodrama''''' [Gr.,=song-drama], originally a spoken text with musical background, as in Greek drama. The form was popular in the 18th cent., when its composers included Georg Benda, J. J. Rousseau, and W. A. Mozart, among others. Modern examples of the true music melodrama are found in Richard Strauss's setting of Tennyson's Enoch Arden, and in Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. J. J. Rousseau's melodrama Pygmalion (1762; first performed 1770) helped create a vogue for stage plays in which the action was generally romantic, full of violent action, and often characterized by the final triumph of virtue. The common use of the term melodrama refers to sentimental stage plays of this sort. The leading authors of melodramas in the early 19th century were Guilbert de Pixérécourt of France and the German August von Kotzebue. The term was used extensively in England in the 19th century as a device to circumvent the law that limited legitimate plays to certain theaters. Melodrama was one of the most-popular of theatrical genres of the 19th century in England and America, its "tear-jerking" style easily made the transition to film, radio and television, where they are represented by the maudlin excesses and unbelievable coincidences of contemporary soap operas. The term is now applied to all scripts with overdrawn characterizations, smashing climaxes, and appeal to sentiment. Famous examples of stage melodramas include East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood and Ten Nights in a Barroom by W. W. Pratt. (Columbia)." | ||
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== Examples == | == Examples == | ||
[[File:PhantomoftheOpera.jpg| | [[File:UncleTomsCabin.jpg|100px|thumb|left|"Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852 Novel)]] | ||
[[File:PhantomoftheOpera.jpg|100px|thumb|right|The Phantom of the Opera (2004 Film)]] | |||
[[File:Manhattanmelodramamp.jpg|100px|thumb|center|Manhattan Melodrama, 1934)]] | |||
"Uncle Tom’s Cabin" – the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852) | |||
Arnold Schoenberg's ''Pierrot Lunaire [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrot_Lunaire]''-This is one of the most famous examples of melodrama. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-zW10__i4M]<br> | Arnold Schoenberg's ''Pierrot Lunaire [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrot_Lunaire]''-This is one of the most famous examples of melodrama. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-zW10__i4M]<br> | ||