Academy Award-winning actor Anthony Hopkins isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
The 88-year-old stage and film star revealed he will release his debut album next month and released the first single, “Bracken Road,” on Friday.
Hopkins, famous for his performances in Silence of the Lambs And recently, fatherHe explained that he composed the classical music repertoire over six decades. He has signed with Decca Classics, who are releasing the album with the title Life is a dreamon August 21. The songs are performed by Gustavo Dudamel with the Philharmonia Orchestra.
The first song was inspired by Hopkins’ childhood memories of Margam in South Wales, as well as “the streets, meadows, farmland and mountains surrounding his family home in the 1940s”, according to Decca. Another song, “My Homeland”, draws on traditional Welsh melodies and compositions inspired by cinema, his wife and his niece.
Hopkins describes music as “my first desire, my first wish… I’ve been writing music all my life. Some of these pieces have lived with me for decades and I still find myself returning to them. My whole life is a dream. Signing with Decca is the honor of a lifetime.”
The actor has been playing the piano since he was four years old and began performing Beethoven and Chopin just a few years later, his agency said. As a teenager, Hopkins was composing music for local plays. In fact, this is not his first time in the music spotlight. In 2012, the self-taught composer won the Brit Classical Award for Album of the Year, after composing the title waltz for his album. And the waltz continuesrecorded by violinist André Rieu.
“Signing with Decca is the honor of a lifetime,” Hopkins continued. “It has been a true honor to collaborate with the outstanding Philharmonia Orchestra and the talented soloists, cellist Gregorio Neto and classical pianist Sergio Tiempo. My sincere thanks and respect go to Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, whose artistry is an integral part of this musical journey. With the exquisite precision of his baton, he transformed each note with a profound and indelible meaning, creating a pictorial spectacle that invites the listener to feel and imagine something. A unique personality.”
Hopkins is “a rare artist,” Dudamel added. He said:[His] Creative voice transcends any single medium. The same depth of imagination, humanity and emotional truth that has defined his extraordinary work on stage and screen is present in his music. Listening to his compositions, I am struck by their beauty, their craftsmanship, and the unmistakable sense of wonder that animates them… Anthony approaches music with the heart of a storyteller and the instincts of a poet, creating sound worlds that are deeply personal and have universal resonance.
