Sir Anthony Hopkins is proof that it’s never too late to follow your dreams, with the actor releasing his first record at the age of 88.
Hopkins, whose roles include the classical-music-loving cannibal Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, made his musical debut on Friday (10 July) with orchestral single “Bracken Road”.
Inspired by the actor’s childhood memories of growing up in Margam, south Wales, and the farmland, meadows and mountains that surrounded his family home in the 1940s, the work is a moving and nostalgic piece that incorporates subtle blues influences.
The piano melody was originally conceived as a song while Hopkins was working at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1963, as he improved at an upright piano backstage before rehearsals. The orchestration from the Philharmonia Orchestra is led by Grammy Award-winning conductor Gustavo Dudamel and features a muted trumpet, clarinet and romantic, swooning strings, an homage to the dignified movement of Elgar’s First Symphony.
The work will be included in Hopkins’s 12-track album of classical music, scheduled for release next month and titled Life is a Dream. It is being distributed by Decca Classics, which signed Hopkins to his first ever record label deal.
While Hopkins began acting almost 70 years ago and went on to win two Oscars, four Baftas and various other awards, he said that music was actually his “first desire”.
“I’ve been composing music all my life,” he said in a statement. “Some of these pieces have lived with me for decades and I still find myself returning to them.”
“The bluesy, languid tune is inspired by the slow ballads of the Harry James Orchestra, and Jackie Gleason.”
The full album will feature original recordings of compositions Hopkins wrote over the course of six decades – including “My Fatherland”, a tribute to his “humble beginnings” in Wales.
“I am the son of my father, the baker,” Hopkins said, adding that signing with Decca has been “the honour of a lifetime”.
Decca president Laura Monks said that it has been a privilege to work with Hopkins on the album.
“His depth of talent and classical music knowledge, honed over a lifetime, is a joy to celebrate with this new album,” she said.
“Hearing his incredible compositions come to life at the recording sessions in London with Gustavo Dudamel and the Philharmonia Orchestra was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we are excited to bring to the world.”
Hopkins graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 1957 before enrolling at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He later caught the attention of Sir Laurence Olivier, who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre, becoming the established actor’s understudy.
Over the past seven decades, Hopkins has taken on award-winning roles in The Lion in Winter, The Great Inimitable Mr Dickens, War and Peace and The Bunker – a 1981 film in which his portrayal of Adolf Hitler won him an Emmy.
He finally won an Academy Award in 1992 for the role of Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, returning to the franchise for the sequel Hannibal nine years later. After four more Oscar nominations, he won again in 2021 for his portrayal of a man in his Eighties living with dementia in The Father.
Hopkins released his first memoir last year, chronicling his Port Talbot beginnings, his struggles with alcoholism and on-set dramas with Paul Sorvino in 1996’s Nixon.
