She could have danced all night — though perhaps not cheek to cheek with the head of John the Baptist. After Asher Fisch had conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in Richard Strauss’s Dance of the Seven Veils, Deborah Voigt swept on stage, with blood-red frock and blood-red lips, to sing the closing scene from Salome. After that, she offered heartfelt thanks to her boisterously enthusiastic audience in Strauss’s song Zueignung. And then, daringly, the orchestra partnered her in I Could Have Danced all Night — to riotous applause.
By the end of the evening you really could believe that Voigt could have spread her wings and done a thousand things that she had never done before. Now she was on top form.