Review Summary: A lifelong work brought to life.
There’s something extremely wholesome about
Life Is a Dream. Sir Anthony Hopkins, legendary and venerable actor, better known for playing titan icons like Hannibal Lecter, Richard the Lion Heart, Claudius and Van Helsing, is now embarking on a literal lifelong project and bucket list ambition of releasing his own music. What’s most interesting about
Life Is a Dream, is it took sixty-three years for Hopkins to reify
Life Is a Dream. The music for the album first came into fruition in 1963, where a 25-year-old Hopkins began piecing tracks like “Bracken Road” and “The Eagle” together on an upright piano he had in a room he was renting. When his acting career took off, Hopkins shelved his passion project and archived the material he had gathered, which collected dust for decades until Covid hit. During lockdown, Hopkins went through the collection of music he had created, reworked some of it, and asked Gustavo Dudamel and the Philharmonia Orchestra to bring his work to life.
And so,
Life Is a Dream is essentially a soundtrack to Anthony Hopkins’ life, since it’s taken most of his life to come out. It’s a collection of traditionally approached classical pieces that ebb and flow in the way you’d imagine them to – buttery smooth melodies that tell an emotional tale. “Fanfare and March” and “And the Waltz Goes On (Arr. Rieu)” are lively numbers with a waltz-y swing to them, while “Margam”, “Farewell My Love” and “Stella Aria” are ballads with sorrow-fuelled swells injected into them. “My Fatherland” is a grand epic with beautiful vocal melodies and harmonies, and the “1947 Suite (I-III)” is a rollercoaster ride of upbeat and downcast emotions, all executed in a really engaging way. The album also cathartically concludes with the epic “Two Pieces for Orchestra (I-II)”, which is loaded with booming percussion and gorgeous vocal work.
At sixty-seven minutes in length, this isn’t the type of record I’d come back to often. It’s also not the dour experience I look for in this type of music, despite having some gloomy moments. That being said; this is still a well-compiled and engaging journey that will hold your attention throughout its girthy run time. If you’re a fan of classical music, this will doubtlessly satiate any cravings you have for new music in this genre.
