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{{For|the Andrea Bocelli song|Melodramma (song)}}
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'''''Melodramma''''' (plural: ''melodrammi'') is a 17th-century [[Italian language|Italian]] term for a text to be set as an [[opera]], or the opera itself.<ref>''The Harvard Dictionary of Music'', fourth edition, 2003, p. 499.</ref> 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]]''.<ref>Patrick Smith in ''The Tenth Muse'', p.73; ''The Harvard Dictionary of Music'', fourth edition, 2003, p. 499.</ref> Characteristic are the influence of French bourgeois drama, female instead of male protagonists, and the practice of opening the action with a chorus.<ref>Patrick Smith in ''The Tenth Muse'', p.73.</ref>

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'').<ref>Budden, Julian: ''Melodramma''  in 'The [[New Grove Dictionary of Opera]]', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) {{ISBN|0-333-73432-7}}</ref>

== References ==
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{{Opera terms}}

[[Category:Opera terminology]]
[[Category:Italian words and phrases]]