Gayer, Catherine (1937– )

US soprano. After studying in San Francisco and Berlin her debut was in the first performance of Nono's Intolleranza 60 in Venice in 1961. She joined the Deutsche Oper Berlin and in 1968 created Nausikaa in Dallapiccola's Ulisse; she was Marie in Zimmermann's Die Soldaten/The Soldiers, when the company visited Edinburgh in 1972. At Schwetzingen she was heard in the first performance of Reimann's Melusine in 1971, and she also appeared with the Scottish Opera. Her other roles included Jenifer (Tippett, The Midsummer Marriage), Lulu (Berg, Lulu), and the Queen of the Night (Mozart, Die Zauberflöte/The Magic Flute), which she sang at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, in 1962. She sang in Joplin's Treemoniska at the 1992 Schwetzingen Festival.