Anthony Hopkins releases album of orchestral works, Life is a Dream

Sir Anthony Hopkins, the Oscar- and Emmy-winning actor, has released a new album of orchestral compositions titled Life Is a Dream. Recorded with London's Philharmonia Orchestra under conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the record draws on music Hopkins wrote across six decades, from pieces dating to the 1960s through work composed more recently.

Hopkins said he became interested in composing around 1964, after growing up in postwar Wales listening to MGM musicals, Frank Sinatra and Benny Goodman on the radio. Music, he said, was his first love, and it nearly became his career instead of acting: at 17, he auditioned for Cardiff College of Music and Drama hoping to use an acting scholarship as a way into the school's music department.

Several tracks trace back to specific memories. "Fanfare And March," which opens the record, grew out of a session in a friend's synthesizer studio where Hopkins said he simply wanted "to start with some brass and something big." "1947: Suite For Solo Piano & Orchestra" was inspired by his childhood in South Wales, going to the cinema with his father to hear the jazz and big-band music of the era.

Hopkins has composed music alongside his acting career for years, including the score to the 1998 film Slipstream, and has said he never sought much attention for it. "You can't go on stage hoping the audience will like you," he said, comparing music to acting. "Either they'll like you, or they'll hate you." Film composers John Barry and George Fenton, he said, were early influences who encouraged him to keep writing.

Hopkins, who is 88, said he lost his Southern California home in a wildfire and plans to start composing again once he rebuilds in the fall, drawing on his time in Los Angeles and Malibu. Asked whether he might retire, he said no. "I wake up in the morning, think, well, I'm still here," he said.