Subtitled A Play for Burmese Marionettes in One Act (Ein Spiel für burmanische Marionetten in einem Akt), it is a staged work with both singers and dancers.

Hindemith comments the third dance: "The following 'choral fugue' (with all mod cons: augmentation, diminutions, stretto and basso ostinato) simply thank their existence to an unfortunate coincidence: they were conceived by the composer.

They have no further purpose than this: to incorporate themselves stylishly into the framework of this picture and provide all 'experts' with the opportunity to bark about the incredibly bad taste of their creator.

"[7] 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".

[2] The opera was first performed, together with Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen, on 4 June 1921 at the Württembergisches Landestheater in Stuttgart,[8] conducted by Fritz Busch and staged by Otto Erhardt.