Life is a Dream

The often autobiographical and profoundly personal pieces that make up Sir Anthony Hopkins’ album Life is a Dream span a lifetime of musical invention. “My true passion was always music,” Hopkins tells Apple Music Classical. “I was awarded an acting scholarship to the Cardiff College of Music and Drama, and the rest is history.” And although the Welsh actor’s stage and screen accolades show the depth of that history, his substantial musical talents have been largely hidden—until now. “Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great American philosopher, believed that music and art were the paths to God and the way to connect all human spirits,” says Hopkins. “He knew that touching one soul would touch all souls. Music is transformational. At 88, I have a profound understanding that death is something none of us can escape. The theme of my 1947 Suite is that life is one long goodbye filled with wonder and forgiveness. In Stella Aria I am saying, hello my love, goodbye my love.” His wife, Stella, retrieved countless scores from their home in the early 2000s and began the process that led to their eventual orchestration and performance. Music played a principal part in sustaining the working-class communities of industrial South Wales. It also gave young Tony Hopkins, from the Port Talbot suburb of Margam, an outlet for his imagination. “At the age of seven, Muriel, my mother, bought me a cottage upright piano, which at the time was a real luxury. She also made sure I had formal piano and art lessons. But largely, you could say that I am self-taught.” His homeland’s great singing tradition left an indelible mark on his compositions, clearly so in the Welsh hymns and arias of My Fatherland. “I dedicate My Fatherland to Wales and my humble beginnings as the son of my father, the baker,” he says. “Not to over-sentimentalize what it means to me, but every time I hear the simple and profound tunes, I am overwhelmed with emotion.” And the Waltz Goes On, first recorded by André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra in 2011, dates from Hopkins’ early years in repertory theatre. Its haunting melodies, like many pieces on the album, evoke heart-on-sleeve movie soundtracks and the vibrant best of light classical music. What were his strongest musical influences? “My biggest musical influence is rooted in my Welsh upbringing and the landscapes of my childhood,” he replies. “I’ve been inspired by musicals, the great classical westerns, and the score of my favourite film of all time, Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight.” Hopkins, like Chaplin before him, proves to be a skilled musical storyteller. Life is a Dream ends with two spectacular symphonic showpieces inspired by Somerset Maugham’s story The Appointment in Samarra, in which a man appears to be pursued by Death. In The Eagle, that bird of prey appears a potent symbol of fate in Hopkins’ piece, inspired by a seventh-century Arabic poem by Imru’ al-Quais in which a horse at full gallop is compared to the eagle in flight: “From birth through all of life’s seasons, the Eagle flies to the end of time,” says Hopkins, whose tone poem he explains “builds a sense of foreboding and dread.” The title of the next piece, Samsara, plays—Hopkins explains—on both the place name Samarra in Iraq, and the concept of Samsara, “the cycle of life, death and rebirth that is fundamental to ancient Indian philosophy and religion.” Signifying the inevitability of death in this cycle, the castanets which featured in The Eagle reappear, leading in turn to a lament for solo cello that builds a great orchestral climax, followed by a sense of peace and acceptance. Anthony Hopkins has found ideal interpreters in Gustavo Dudamel and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Life is a Dream also features spine-tingling choral singing from the Bach Choir and the boy choristers of Winchester Cathedral, with eloquent solos from pianist Sergio Tiempo and cellist Gregorio Nieto. “With the graceful precision of his baton, Maestro Gustavo Dudamel transformed each note with profound and indelible meaning, creating a pictorial landscape that invites the listener to feel and imagine something uniquely personal.”