Jan Peerce Videos

Anita Darian, a soprano whose four-octave voice earned her the nickname “The Armenian Yma Sumac” and spawned an eclectic 50-year career that ranged from performances with the New York City Opera, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic to big-band jazz concerts, co-starring roles with Barbara Cook, and hit pop recordings that included “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is dead at 87. A longtime resident of East Atlantic Beach, L.I., she died Sunday, Feb. 1 at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside of complications from surgery.