‘Music was my first desire’: Anthony Hopkins releases his debut single | Music

Anthony Hopkins says he has fulfilled his “first wish” to sign a record deal with the release of his debut single on Friday.

The 88-year-old Hollywood actor’s debut album, Life Is a Dream, will be released next month on Decca Classics. A collection of pieces composed over sixty years.

Her debut single, Bracken Road, is inspired by her childhood memories of Margam in south Wales and the streets, meadows, farmland and mountains that surrounded her family home in the 1940s.

Hopkins, who won an Oscar for his roles in The Silence of the Lambs and The Godfather, said: “Music was my first desire, my first wish, I’ve been composing music my whole life. Some of these pieces have lived with me for decades and I still find myself returning to them. My whole life has been a dream. Signing with Decca is the honor of a lifetime.”

Its music is performed by Grammy-winning conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Philharmonic Orchestra.

Born in Port Talbot, he has been composing music since childhood and started playing the piano at the age of four.

He said: “It has been a real privilege to collaborate with the outstanding Philharmonic Orchestra and virtuoso soloists, cellist Gregorio Nieto and classical pianist Sergio Tiempo. My deepest gratitude and respect belongs to conductor Gustavo Dudamel, whose artistry has been an integral part of this musical journey.”

“With the exquisite precision of his baton, he transformed each note with deep and indelible meaning, creating a pictorial landscape that invites the listener to feel and imagine something uniquely personal.”

Bracken Road was composed by Hopkins in 1963, when he was a young actor at the Liverpool Playhouse. He pays tribute to Wales on another track from the album, My Fatherland, in a track he says he wrote “to honor my humble beginnings”, adding: “I’m my baker’s father’s son.”

Other compositions on the album are inspired by his memories of Port Talbot, his childhood visits to his grandfather, the cinema that first captured his imagination, and the people closest to him.

Laura Monks, president of Decca, said: “It is a great privilege to have the great Sir Anthony Hopkins join Decca Classics. It is a pleasure to celebrate his lifelong talent and knowledge of classical music with this new album.”