Anthony Hopkins, 88, Signs Decca Deal for Classical Album
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- Anthony Hopkins, 88, signed with Decca Classics to release Life Is a Dream, an album of original compositions he has been writing for more than six decades.
- Gustavo Dudamel conducted the album alongside the Philharmonia Orchestra, with pianist Sergio Tiempo and cellist Gregorio Nieto as featured soloists.
- The first single, "Bracken Road," comes from Hopkins's "1947: Suite for Solo Piano and Orchestra" and draws on childhood memories of Margam, South Wales.
- Hopkins has played piano since age four and began composing music for local plays as a teenager, calling music "my first desire, my first wish."
- Other tracks include "My Fatherland," inspired by traditional Welsh melodies, plus compositions inspired by cinema, his wife, and his niece.
- The album, which also features the Bach Choir and Boy Choristers of Winchester Cathedral, was recorded at Alexandra Palace in London in April.
Why it matters: An Oscar-winning actor at 88 is releasing a debut classical album with one of the world's leading orchestras and a star conductor, an unusual late-career crossover that puts Hopkins's decades of private composing into the public catalog for the first time on a major label.
