Having solved the case of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes takes a box for the grand French opera, Les Huguenots by Meyerbeer. In the story it is performed by the De Reszkes siblings. The singers Jean, Edouard (pictured), and Josephine de Reszke actually appeared together in productions of Les Huguenots in London and New York.

In The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, Holmes is said to be composing a monograph about the polyphonic motets of the Dutch Renaissance composer, Lassus. Watson writes that the book has “since been printed for private circulation, and is said by experts to be the last word on the subject.”

In The Adventure of the Cardboard Box, Dr. Watson reports how, over a bottle of claret, Holmes told “anecdote after anecdote” about the extraordinary violin virtuoso, Paganini.

In the story The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone, Holmes fools his enemies into thinking he was playing the Barcarolle from The Tales of Hoffman by Offenbach on the violin, when he’s actually playing them a gramophone recording.

In A Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson describes Holmes’s skill on the violin as “very remarkable, but as eccentric as all his other accomplishments. That he could play pieces, and difficult pieces, I knew well, because at my request he has played me some of Mendelssohn’s Lieder and other favourites.”

A preference for German music In The Red-Headed League, Holmes tells Watson he prefers German music to French or Italian. Holmes attends a concert of German works given by Pablo de Sarasate at St. James’s Hall. “It is introspective, and I want to instrospect.” Holmes says.

A night at the opera Having solved The Adventure of the Red Circle, Holmes and Watson rush to a Wagner night at Covent Garden.