The Democrats, intending to play down the event, declared the cots a melodramatic excess.

The genre is close to a cliché, and the lure of melodramatic excess is always in the air.

Where are melodramatic excess and verbiage, convoluted back stories and endless exposition and explanation?

But the details were swept aside by the melodramatic excess of the music, which repeatedly builds to brassy, crashing climaxes.

That is not easy to say, with the wild swings from earnest encounters to melodramatic excesses to flat-out farce.

The work has always had detractors, and it is easy to poke fun at its moments of melodramatic Puccinian excess.

In his production, Mr. Hunt emphasizes realism and avoids melodramatic excesses.

And yet for all these melodramatic excesses, "The Binding Chair" never devolves into simple soap opera.

It's easy to poke fun at the melodramatic musical excesses of Carlisle Floyd's "Susannah."

Ms. Deferie has cooked up a stew in which the drama is soap-operatic melodramatic excess.