Although opera diva Maria Ewing is particularly noted for the roles of Salome and Carmen, she will swap hats to sing American popular songs and Broadway hits at Chichester this Sunday.

Born in Detroit, Ms Ewing has returned to her musical roots for this one-off recital for which she will be accompanied by a pianist and two guitarists.

"My dad was a great stride and ragtime pianist and the record player was on all the time with Gershwin and so on.

"I loved them and that was even before I knew I wanted to be a singer.

"These songs have swing, they have clever rhymes and the words mean something - sometimes very personal things."

The West Sussex-based singer first made the cross-over - she hates the term - in 1989, when John Drummond, then head of the BBC Proms, asked her to do a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

This year, she is including some of the American and Berlin theatre songs off Kurt Weill as well as such classics as My Funny Valentine, Who Can I Turn To? and The Song Is You.

She said: "These songs will last forever or at least as long as there are people to listen to them."

The concert begins at 7pm on Sunday. Tickets 01243 781312.