 Hindemith also quotes from "Till Eulenspiegel" by Richard Strauss, and parodies the exotic sounds of Mahler’s "Das Lied von der Erde", using celesta, mandolin, harp and English horn.He contrasts tender music with "the screeches of two trained monkeys", and parodies the "neo-Baroque" style of Max Reger with a grotesque "choral fugue".The opera was first performed, together with "Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen", on 4 June 1921 at the Württembergisches Landestheater in Stuttgart, conducted by Fritz Busch and staged by Otto Erhardt.