"Oh, what one often has to hear or read about naughty children!" So begins the famous story by Wilhelm Busch about the naughty brothers Max and Moritz and their pranks. Against impudence and schadenfreude, there seems to be basically no remedy, as Wilhelm Busch already lamented, and in times of social media there are plenty of opportunities to harass others and  to get attention for it.

The Norwegian composer Gisle Kverndokk and librettist Øystein Wiik look with today's perspective and a great treasure trove of musical quotations on the old story and recount seven equally common and amusing pranks, with which Max and Moritz, in cartoon style, annoy the descendants of Widow Bolte, Teacher Lämpel and Tailor Böck. The last prank of the naughty boys is just  one too many the as today. But: He who laughs last, laughs loudest.