Ancient historians tell us that King Gilgamesh of Uruk ruled his Mesopotamian stronghold some 1,500 years before Homer sang the fall of Troy. Encyclopedias have characterized Gilgamesh as “semi-mythic,” but the poem that bears his name—far and away the world’s oldest epic—elevates him to the realm of myth itself. Two-thirds divine and one third human, Gilgamesh offends the gods with his tyranny and arrogance. To put him in his place, they create Enkidu, a wild man of the forest. Enemies at first, the two men becomes soulmates, given to exploits that once again offend the touchy gods, who strike Enkidu down. Shattered, Gilgamesh embarks on a quest for immortality. A new adaptation by Jack Symonds, artistic director of the Sydney Chamber Opera, is far from the first and will not be the last. It’s modestly scored for a quintet of vocalists (some in multiple roles), the Australian String Quartet, and the progressive sextet Ensemble Offspring. The spectacle, though, should be colossal. The arts complex Carriageworks, once occupied by the New South Wales Government Railways, encompasses spaces on the industrial scale—just the canvas for Kip Williams, a theatrical visionary who thinks big. —Matthew Gurewitsch