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.” 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.

“What drew me in was its authenticity,” Dudamel says via email of Hopkins’ music.

“Anthony writes without pretense and he follows his own artistic instinct.

When I spent time with his scores, I wasn’t thinking about the fact that they were written by one of the world’s great actors.

I was simply responding to the music itself.

It has warmth, imagination, and a very personal voice, and I felt it deserved to be heard.” Life Is a Dream’s 12 pieces are largely nostalgic looks back at Hopkins’ life, from the dreamy, lush “Margam,” about where he grew up in Wales; to the boisterous, exhilarating “Fanfare and March” and the haunting, deeply romantic “Farewell My Love,” dedicated to his wife of 23 years, Stella.

In many ways, the pieces serve as a musical companion to his 2025 autobiography, We Did OK, Kid .