melodrama

Etymology

From French mélodrame, the second element refashioned by analogy with drama; ultimately from Ancient Greek μέλος (mélos, “limb”, “member”, “song”, “tune”, “melody”) + δρᾶμα (drâma, “deed”, “theatrical act”). Compare melodrame. Cognate to German Melodram and Spanish melodrama.

noun

1. (archaic, uncountable) A kind of drama having a musical accompaniment to intensify the effect of certain scenes.
2. (countable) 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
   the melodrama in the grave digging scene of Beethoven's "Fidelio".
   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
3. (uncountable, figurative, colloquial) Any situation or action which is blown out of proportion.