Pop Meets Classical in Anne Sofie von Otter’s “So Many Things”

Description

In this Premiere Performances show, the Swedish mezzo-soprano includes songs that blend pop music with works by contemporary classical composers, making for a spectacular evening of music. The singer doesn’t see these genres “as two worlds at all, but just plain old good, interesting, attractive music that moves and inspires [her]”.

Von Otter’s idea of having a wide range of repertoire stemmed from her habit of listening to various genres of music on the radio and on records. Having heard many things she liked and wanted to sing, she worked with people who also function like that. This prompted her to work on something different from the conventional or traditional at the early stage. She explains in a Gramophone interview, “After a long career it’s not that I’m tired of earlier music, of older music, but it’s certainly quite interesting and always a challenge to see whether new music is going to be interesting and good and how the voice is going to feel when we are talking about classical contemporary. And I’ve always liked singing pop songs, so that’s nothing new.”

Photo: Mats Bäcker