ABSTRACT
René Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt is often thought of as the ‘father’ of melodrama. This is chiefly because the form itself acquired the definition which allows it to be distinguished from other genres around the turn of the nineteenth century, and Pixérécourt’s own Coelina, was first staged in 1800. The origins of the melodrama have received their share of attention from theatre historians, and, more recently, the aesthetic of melodrama has been carefully analysed.1
