Many contemporary operas consist largely of sung dialogue; their composers carefully avoid the big arias, songs and rousing choruses that opera composers inserted whenever the plot gave them the slightest excuse… But [in A Scandal in Bohemia] Whitman isn’t afraid to seize opportunities for pure musical numbers. When Holmes impersonates a drunken workingman, baritone Markus Beam gets to sing a lyrical song. Watson’s watch aria as he waits for Holmes is another high point…. The love duet between Holmes and Adler is a musical tour de force.