Madam, - I'm sometimes puzzled by omissions in your Saturday Obituaries page. For example, the recent death of the actress Alida Valli went unrecorded. She it was who lit up the cinema screen in the unforgettable role of Anna in The Third Man (1949).
So many others associated with Carol Reed's masterpiece had already passed on: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Trevor Howard, Graham Greene (screenplay), Robert Krasker (Oscar-winning cinematography) and Anton Karas (zither-playing of the haunting "Harry Lime Theme"). For many of us, Alida Valli's fade-out was the end of an era.
Oddly, there was no mention in the Elisabeth Schwarzkopf obituary (August 5th) of her long association with, and interpretation of, the "Four Last Songs" of Richard Strauss. Thankfully, Jack O'Brien in his excellent RTE radio programme O'Brien on Song, paid appropriate tribute with her recording of Beim Schlafengehen. - Yours, etc,
OLIVER McGRANE, Marley Avenue, Dublin 16.