The Frenchman Alain Altinoglu has been named chief of the turbulent Brussels opera house.

This has become a game of musical chairs. The last music director, Ludovic Morlot, quit a year ago, since when the post has stood vacant.

Alison Dalton, a first violin in the Chicago Symphoy Orchestra since 1987, found the notes blurring before her eyes while on tour in Hong Kong two years ago. Fifty doctors failed to put things right. Cristina Muti, the maestro’s wife, told her: ‘You just have to keep trying for all of us, because for the grace of God, it could have been anybody.’

So Alison did. And now she’s back. Here’s how.

Barbara Brecht-Schall, daughter of Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel, died on Monday at 84.

She was herself a gifted actress.