A duodrama is a theatrical melodrama

Melodrama

The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...

 for two actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

s or singers, in which the spoken voice is used with a musical accompaniment for heightened dramatic effect. It was popular at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century.

Closely related to opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, the most famous example were the 1775 works Ariadne auf Naxos

Ariadne auf Naxos (Benda)

Ariadne auf Naxos is a duodrama in one act by composer Georg Benda with a German libretto by Johann Christian Brandes. The opera's first performance was at the Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha, on 27 January 1775....

and Medea

Medea (Benda)

Medea is a melodrama in one act with five scenes by composer Georg Benda with a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter. The work was first performed in Leipzig at the Theater am Rannstädtertor on 1 May 1775.-Historical impact and musical analysis:...

by Georg Benda

Georg Benda

Jiří Antonín Benda, also Georg Anton Benda or J.A. Benda was a Czech kapellmeister, violinist and composer of the classical period.-Biography:...

. Mozart admired Benda's work and used similar techniques in Zaide

Zaide

Zaide is an unfinished opera, K. 344, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1780. Emperor Joseph II, in 1778, was in the process of setting up an opera company for the purpose of performing German opera. One condition required of the composer to join this company was that he should write a...

(1780) and Thamos, König in Ägypten

Thamos, König in Ägypten

Thamos, King of Egypt is a play by Tobias Philipp, baron von Gebler, for which, between 1773 and 1780, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote incidental music, K. 345/336a, of an operatic character....

(c. 1773-1780). He considered writing a duodrama himself, to be called Semiramis. Beethoven's Fidelio

Fidelio

Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...

(1805-1814) and Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....

's Der Freischütz

Der Freischütz

Der Freischütz is an opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin...

(1821) also contain duodramas. The style is also used in lieder and song.