Can blue men sing the whites? When established opera and concert singers try to boogie on down with rock, emote with Broadway musicals or just smooch along with easy-listening material, the results are often poor - a brief frisson of naughtiness enjoyed by record companies and fans that soon end up in the bargain bins.

Two years ago Anne Sofie von Otter went into the studios with Benny Andersson, the composer behind Abba, Chess and Kristina från Duvemåla (Sweden's version of Little House on the Prairie). Could she buck a trend? The results are serious, earnest, reflecting well on Andersson's songs, less so on von Otter as an interpreter outside “classical” material. Her evident love of this repertoire sounds like the kind of over-respect that “pop” performers bring to the classics. She misses (or glides over) the massive irony - essential to all Abba songs - of the tedium of the commuter's day in The day before you came. She's on safer ground with the more direct emotions of the Chess and Kristina music and, at last, sounds like she's enjoying herself in Money, Money, Money, a track sneaked in at the end with no acknowledgement on record sleeve or booklet. A shame she didn't attempt the big symphonic rock of Dancing Queen or Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

The high production values of the record (not least Andersson's piano-playing on a couple of tracks) add merit but I suspect much of this material needs a “live” context if it's really going to gel for this most conscientious interpreter.