Sentence:  Rudolf was the bold, bad Baron of traditional <WSD>melodrama</WSD>. 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. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  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