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.

Whitman’s score [A Scandal in Bohemia]… paints the stage with epigrammatic bits of color… The musical tide rose, instrumental color expanding and vocal writing widening the perspectives. The musical interplay between Heimes and baritone Markus Beam moved through a range of solidly crafted lines that freed the emotions within.