Yma Sumac, 86, the Peruvian-born singer whose spectacular multi-octave vocal range and exotic persona made her an international sensation in the 1950s, has died. Sumac, who was diagnosed with colon cancer in February, died Saturday in Los Angeles, said Damon Devine, her personal assistant and close friend. Sumac was known as the "Nightingale of the Andes," the "Peruvian Songbird" and a "singing marvel" with a 4 1/2-octave (she said five-octave) voice.

"She is five singers in one," boasted Moises Vivanco, her composer-arranger husband, in a 1951 interview with the Associated Press. "Never in 2,000 years has there been another voice like hers."

After Sumac performed in Los Angeles with a company of dancers, drummers and musicians in 1955, a Los Angeles Times writer observed: "She warbles like a bird in the uppermost regions, hoots like an owl in the lowest registers, produces bell-like coloratura passages one minute, and exotic, dusky contralto tones the next."

During her 1950s heyday, Sumac sang at the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall and Royal Albert Hall.

LOS ANGELES TIMES