The Third Man rides again - 75th anniversary of Carol Reed's noir classic

Script supervisor Angela Allen on Orson Welles and filming in a war-ravaged Vienna

It was originally released in Britain 75 years ago this month, making its debut in a small cinema in Hastings on 1 September 1949, and quite a few people will tell you that The Third Man is their all-time favourite film. Carol Reed’s noir classic uses bomb-ravaged Vienna as an index of the aftermath of World War Two.

Visit from an Unknown Woman, Hampstead Theatre review - slim, overly earthbound slice of writer's angst

★★ VISIT FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE Slim, overly earthbound

Christopher Hampton's love of Stefan Zweig's text becomes a drawback

Who was Stefan Zweig? It's likely that it's mostly older folk who studied German literature at A-level who have encountered this superb Viennese writer in his native language, though his short story from 1922, Letter to an Unknown Woman, eventually emerged as a starry Hollywood film in 1948.

Špaček, BBC Philharmonic, Bihlmaier, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - three flavours of Vienna

★★★★ SPACEK, BBCPO, BIHLMAIER, MANCHESTER Three flavours of Vienna

Close attention, careful balancing, flowing phrasing and clear contrast

Billed as a “Viennese Whirl”, this programme showed that there are different kinds of music that may be known to the orchestral canon as coming from Vienna.

Roderick Williams, Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall review - sunshine and serenity

★★★★ RODERICK WILLIAMS, NASH ENSEMBLE, WIGMORE HALL Sunshine and serenity

A quicksilver 'Trout', and both Mahlers in mellow mood

The Nash Ensemble’s concerts dedicated to “Beethoven and the Romantics” not only trace the flowering of the Romantic spirit in music from the Vienna of the 1800s through a continent and across the century. They also give a place at the top table for works by once-sidelined helpmeets of the movement’s giants: Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Alma Mahler.

Mayerling, Royal Ballet review - a masterpiece of storytelling, darkly gripping

MAYERLING, ROYAL BALLET A masterpiece of storytelling, darkly gripping

Kenneth MacMillan's royal-family-in-death-spiral dance drama reconfirms its potency

Although the loss of its 96-year-old royal patron can hardly have come as a surprise, Covent Garden has been slow to register it. The gold-embroidered ERs on those luscious red velvet stage curtains remain in place, and when Wednesday night’s audience was invited to stand for the playing of the National Anthem, the uninvited vocal response was heard to “send her victorious”. Old habits die hard.

Measure for Measure, Sam Wanamaker Theatre review - this problem play is a delight

★★★★ MEASURE FOR MEASURE, SAM WANAMAKER THEATRE This problem play is a delight

Blanche McIntyre regenders the Duke and relishes the London low-life

Measure for Measure may be the quintessential Shakespeare “problem” play, but just what has earned it that epithet remains a puzzle. Each generation approaches the matter from its own perspective. The developments of recent years, #MeToo most of all, have given new resonance to one of its central themes, the imbalance of law over nature and the quality of justice, but the play’s “resolution”, if it can even be called that, leaves the questions open.

Der Rosenkavalier, Garsington Opera review - musical marvels, drama less often fulfilled

★★★★ DER ROSENKAVALIER, GARSINGTON OPERA Musical marvels, drama less often fulfilled

Classy singing, conducting and playing, directorial holes in bold shot at rococo Strauss

Whatever else happens on the country opera scene this summer, the golden rose award for sheer chutzpah goes to the ever-ambitious Garsington team in pulling this off in no small style. Planning any production of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s intricate 1911 “comedy for music” is daring at the best of times; in the still-shaky Covid era, the decision to go ahead might have seemed foolhardy.