Anthony Hopkins: From Hannibal Lecter to Classical Composer
Creatrip Team
22 days ago
Anthony Hopkins, the two-time Academy Award-winning actor known for playing Hannibal Lecter, has released a classical album of his own orchestral works titled "Life Is a Dream" on Decca. The 88-year-old has been composing for over 60 years—starting at a piano in Liverpool in the 1960s—and several pieces like "And the Waltz Goes On" were performed decades earlier (his wife Stella secretly sent that score to violinist André Rieu). The new Decca release collects works recorded by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel and is presented as a musical autobiography reflecting Hopkins’s Welsh roots, family and memories. Critics describe the music as tonal, melodic and cinematic—closer to late-Romantic and film-score traditions than avant-garde modernism. Decca’s signing highlights both Hopkins’s long, private composing life and the label’s interest in telling a compelling story around classical releases.
