Sir Anthony Hopkins has released his debut album, "Life Is a Dream," a collection of 12 compositions crafted over six decades.
Conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, the album was recorded at London's Alexandra Palace in April and released by Decca Records on August 21. Hopkins, 88, described music as his "first love, or vocation really," recalling his childhood and early exposure to postwar music.
He began playing the piano at age 4 and started composing in 1960, at age 22. Hopkins stated that he finds more freedom in music than in acting, which he described as a discipline requiring mastery of material. He has previously composed scores for films he starred in or directed, including "Shadowlands" (1993), "August" (1996), "Slipstream" (2007), and "Elyse" (2020).
The album "Life Is a Dream" shares its title with a play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca and is inspired by memories of Hopkins' childhood and adolescence in Wales. He reflected on the underlying sadness in life, noting that "life is one long goodbye." This sentiment is present in the album's compositions.
One of the pieces, "1947: Suite for Solo Piano and Orchestra: ll. Bracken Road," is part of a three-part suite about a summer in South Wales. Hopkins described it as containing "melancholy and sadness," a feeling he associates with a "welcomed sound of nostalgia, of the strange, whimsical pain of life" and "yearning."
Another track, "Stella Aria," named after his wife, Stella Hopkins, explores "the loneliness in all of us" as part of a journey toward "sheer happiness."
Hopkins, who will be 89 at the end of the year, expressed gratitude for his long life and stated he has no fear of mortality. He mentioned that Bradley Cooper connected him with Dudamel, who was enthusiastic about the project after witnessing Hopkins' work with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Dudamel praised Hopkins' music, stating that it possesses the "same depth of imagination, humanity and emotional truth" as his screen performances, calling him a storyteller and poet.
Following the album's release, Hopkins expressed a desire to perform live, with Carnegie Hall being a particular aspiration. He recalled his mother telling him as a child, "You play at Carnegie Hall one day," influenced by the 1947 film of the same name.