Amadeus 艾瑪迪斯

The Carnevale of Venice, always a stage for orchestrated chaos, takes on a heightened dramatic resonance when viewed through the lens of Amadeus. This is the Carnival of powdered wigs and scandalous whispers, where the sumptuous rococo decadence of the 18th century cloaks itself in velvet and silk, blurring the lines between noble, rogue, and theatrical player. The air is thick not only with the scent of sea mist and fritole but with the expectant tension of a Mozart overture, suggesting complexity and brilliance just beneath the surface of the revelry. As masked figures—perhaps a Bauta or a Plague Doctor—glide across Piazza San Marco, their silence is broken by bursts of allegro or the melancholy yearning of a minor key, echoing the conflicted genius of Salzburg himself. It is a festival where identity is discarded for the night’s performance, a perfect, glittering opera of anonymity set to the exhilarating, rebellious soundtrack of a young maestro who knew intimately the thrill and danger of living life without a mask.

Amadeus is the name of the costumes for my Italian friends Agostino and Luca.

The guys somehow prefer costumes with a movie theme....

The costumes are inspired by the 1984 American period biographical drama film Amadeus.  directed by Miloš Forman, starring F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce. Peter Shaffer adapted it from his 1979 stage play, inspired by Alexander Pushkin's 1830 play Mozart and Salieri. Shaffer described it as a "fantasia on [a real-life] theme", as it imagines a rivalry between two 18th-century Vienna composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Hulce) and Antonio Salieri (Abraham). Salieri struggles to reconcile his professional admiration and jealous hatred for Mozart, and resolves to ruin Mozart's career as his form of vengeance against God.

In 1823, aged composer Antonio Salieri attempts suicide and is committed to a psychiatric hospital. He claims that he murdered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Father Vogler, a young Catholic priest, encourages Salieri to confess his sins before God. After Vogler fails to recognize him, Salieri plays three old melodies to jog his memory. Vogler cannot recognize the first two (which Salieri wrote) but is relieved to recognize the third (Eine kleine Nachtmusik) at once. Salieri peevishly reveals that Mozart wrote it.

Salieri begins his confession by saying that he grew up hearing stories of the child prodigy, Mozart. In his youth, Salieri was in love with music but was forbidden by his father from studying the craft. Salieri proposed that if God made him a famous musician like Mozart, he would give God his faithfulness, chastity, and diligence. Salieri's father soon dies, which he interprets as a sign that God has accepted his vow. By 1774, Salieri becomes court composer to Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. However, he has enough taste to know that Emperor Joseph has no ear for music and that his own compositions will not stand the test of time.

Upon their first meeting, Salieri immediately knows that Mozart is the better composer but is shocked to learn that Mozart is obscene, immature, and dissolute. He also learns that Mozart never needs to pen a second draft of his music, implying divine inspiration. Salieri cannot fathom why God would choose a reprobate like Mozart as his earthly instrument. Salieri renounces God and vows to take revenge on him by destroying Mozart.

Mozart's work is ahead of its time, and he has trouble finding employment in Vienna. He spends himself into debt, alarming his wife Constanze. Salieri and Mozart bond over their shared contempt for Emperor Joseph's lack of taste, but Mozart is unimpressed by Salieri's populist work, which causes Salieri great pain.

Mozart boldly adapts the subversive play The Marriage of Figaro into a comedic opera. Salieri rejoices, thinking Mozart's career is ruined, but Mozart stuns Salieri by convincing the Emperor to approve the project. However, the Emperor finds the opera boring, and it is cancelled. Eventually, Mozart's father, Leopold, passes away. In response to criticisms and his grief, Mozart composes Don Giovanni, a dark, serious opera. Salieri is entranced but vindictively gets that opera cancelled, too. Renouncing Vienna's artistic establishment, Mozart agrees to write The Magic Flute for a commoners' theater against Constanze's wishes.

After watching Don Giovanni five times, Salieri realizes that the dead commander who accuses Giovanni of sin represents Mozart's inferiority complex towards his father. He concocts a plan to humiliate God. He persuades the unstable Mozart that his late father has risen to commission a Requiem Mass. He plans to kill Mozart, claim the Requiem as his own, and premiere it at Mozart's funeral, forcing God to listen as Salieri is acclaimed. Mozart overworks himself, juggling The Magic Flute and the Requiem. Constanze, who wants him to focus on the Requiem but is fearful of his erratic behaviour, leaves with their son Karl. Although The Magic Flute is a success, the dying Mozart collapses before he can finish the Requiem.

Desperate to complete his plan but also desperate for more of Mozart's heavenly music, Salieri begs the bedridden Mozart to keep writing the Requiem. He takes dictation from Mozart throughout the night, during which he comes to terms with Mozart's superior talent. Mozart thanks Salieri for his friendship, and Salieri admits that Mozart is the greatest composer he knows.

Constanze returns and attempts to kick Salieri out of the apartment before he can steal the Requiem, locking it away. As Salieri protests, they are shocked to discover that Mozart has died from exhaustion. Due to his debts, he is buried in a pauper's grave.

Back in 1823, Vogler is too shaken to absolve Salieri, who surmises that God would rather destroy his beloved Mozart than allow Salieri to share in the smallest part of Mozart's glory. As Salieri is wheeled down a hallway, he proclaims himself the patron saint of mediocrities. He absolves the asylum's other patients of their inadequacies as Mozart's laughter rings in the air.

The storyline is a classic, but this is actually a common occurence in the entertainment industry, where your worst enemies pretend to be your closest friends and they actually want you dead.

As usual, the portraits are just done on the busy streets of Venice and using natural lighting only...It is not an indoor photo studio, there is no artificial lighting, flash or reflectors..