Actor Anthony Hopkins Finds His Truest Voice as a Composer on New Classical Album for Decca, ‘Life Is a Dream’: ‘I Write Out of Sheer Joy of Being Alive’

Life could have gone very differently for Sir Anthony Hopkins. To hear one of the world’s greatest actors tell it, he would have chosen an alternative career path if he’d had the discipline to pursue his first love, music. “I didn’t have the skill as a musician or the patience with theory,” he says. “So, I have no technical knowledge.”

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By all measure, he’s done just fine with his second choice, winning two Academy Awards and bringing unforgettable characters like The Silence of the Lambs’ charismatic serial killer Hannibal Lecter and The Remains of the Day’s repressed head butler James Stevens to the screen. And in some cases, he’s managed to combine his two passions.

Hopkins’ album of original classical compositions, Life Is a Dream, comes out Friday (Aug. 21) on Decca, offering the fullest public statement yet of the private musical life he has pursued alongside his screen career. The album was recorded in London with outgoing Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel leading the Philharmonia Orchestra.