Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of libretto (Text) on comprehension of emotional expression in opera (Musikdrama). Subjects were 30 professional musicians and asked to rate on 12 mono-polar affective scales to 9 great stuffs extracted from “Die Walküre”. During the rating task, half of them could read libretto in addition to the great stuffs given to all. The results revealed that libretto did not affect to the factor structure of affective space of subjects, but significant libretto-stimulus interaction was found and some stimuli were highly influenced by libretto. It was also found that libretto significantly reduced the mean rating time.
