(CNN) -- Australian soprano Dame Joan Sutherland, dubbed "La Stupenda" by opera lovers, died Sunday at age 83 in her home in Switzerland after a long illness.
In a career spanning the last half of the 1900s, Sutherland twice won a Grammy for best classical performer, in 1961 and 1981.
Neil Portnow, president and CEO of the Recording Academy, described Sutherland as possessing "an organic and elegant voice with astonishing range, vibrance and sense of drama".
"Throughout her extraordinary four-decade career, she performed with such greats as Luciano Pavarotti and before audiences in opera houses across the globe. Her legacy lives on in the beautiful arias with which she graced the world," Portnow said in a written statement.
Her stage career began in 1951 in her native Sydney in a production of "Judith" by Eugene Goossens, according to a spokesman with her recording company, Decca Records. She signed with Decca in 1959.
Over the next 30 years, she made 40 recordings of 33 operas, as well as operatic highlights, anthologies and collections ranging from baroque rarities to songs by Noel Coward, a personal friend to her.
Sutherland was often accompanied on stage or in studios by mentor and husband Richard Bonynge, and regular vocal partners included mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne and the tenor Pavarotti.
Her last stage appearance was with both performers in Act 2 of "Die Fledermaus" at The Royal Opera House in London, England's Covent Garden on December 31, 1989.
CNN
