Abstract

The title of the study aligns the names of two great geniuses who dominated the epoch in which they lived. Separated by two centuries and a stylistic period (Baroque), William Shakespeare and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are drawn together by dramaturgy. They were both prolific creators, writing ample works at an amazing speed and impressing, to the same extent, both in the tragic and in the comic genres. Their heroes, among whom Hamlet, Falstaff, Don Giovanni or Figaro, have gradually become archetypes, and there is no theatre or opera house in the entire world that does not include them in their repertoire. The frequency with which the new and more or less veridical film versions appear proves the interest that both artists and the public have in works that are hundreds years old. The victory of the two magnificent creators in their battle with time and fashion has inspired the study of the similarities and differences between the two, all the more so as, apparently, Mozart did not draw his inspiration from Shakespeare´s plays, although he was well familiar with his works. A few decades later, though, other composers, and especially Giuseppe Verdi, would.

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