Guido Gatti has commented that the opera itself illustrates Busoni's own particular ideas about opera as not depicting "realistic events," and also making use of music not continuously, but instead when it is needed and words are insufficient alone to convey the ideas of the text. Larry Sitsky describes the music as "tightly integrated" and "largely based on the 'row' tones which appears as a fanfare at the commencement of the opera." And Henry Cowell has characterised this composition as "the only opera to betray knowledge of Schoenberg's early style before "Wozzeck"."