Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac, renowned for her extreme vocal range, has died at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 86 after suffering for some months with colon cancer.
Details of Sumac's early life are sketchy, but she was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo, in or near the city of Camarjo. Various myths about her heritage, some of her own making, surrounded her career, including the claim that she was an Incan princess, a descendant of emperor Atahualpa. She rose to fame in the US in the forties because of her soaring voice, reportedly spanning as many as four or five octaves at the peak of her powers. Band leader Moises Vivanco, whom she married in 1942, said of her "she is five singers in one. Never in 2,000 years has there been another voice like hers".
The fifties saw her signed to Capitol, and the peak of her fame, as her first album for the label, 'Voice Of The Xtabay' sold half a million copies. During her career she performed at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl as well as appearing in films and on Broadway. Her star waned in the sixties, although she released a rock album in 1971. Divorced from her husband in 1965, Sumac's later years, divided between Peru and Los Angeles, were increasingly solitary. Asked recently how she would like to be remembered, she replied: "That I made good music and brought happiness to people's hearts".