Emotions During Live Music Performance: Links With Individual Differences in Empathy, Visual Imagery, and Mood

Process theories have argued that empathy and visual imagery are important mechanisms underlying emotional reactivity to music. Transient affective states such as mood may also influence music-induced emotions. The present study describes the emotional experience of participants who attended a live opera performance of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly," and its links with individual differences in empathy, visual imagery, and mood. The opera performance induced blends of emotions characterized by high sublimity, low vitality, and unease on the Geneva Emotional Music Scale. Higher dispositional empathy and visual imagery were associated with increased sublimity and unease, respectively. Positive mood was related to increased sublimity and vitality, as well as decreased unease. These results are in line with recent laboratory research on the mechanisms of music-induced emotions and illustrate once again the feasibility of psychological research during live musical performance.