With music by Paola Prestini, Gilgamesh centers around the character Ming, the half-demon son of Madame White Snake - a character closely related to the Sumerian demi-god “Gilgamesh.” Ming was abandoned during his mother’s epic battle with the Abbot. He encounters his mother for the first time in her human form while she is imprisoned by the Abbot in the Golden Mountain Monastery. She reveals his birthright - the power to control the waters and begs him to use this power to save her. Ming returns home to find that his wife has just given birth to a white, iridescent baby girl who resembles her grandmother. He gives the baby to the green snake, who had saved him when his mother was defeated. He returns to the Monastery. A robe and empty alms bowl are all that are left. Ming dons the robe, takes the alms bowl and leaves.

Conceived by Charles M. Jacobs and Cerise Lim Jacobs with composers Scott Wheeler (Naga), Zhou Long (Madame White Snake), and Paola Prestini (Gilgamesh), Ouroboros is a three-part exploration of life, death and rebirth, as symbolized by the ancient Greek icon of a serpent eating its own tail.

The trilogy, produced by Beth Morrison Projects and The Friends of Madame White Snake, will be presented in Boston in the fall of 2016, both as individual operas and as seven hour full-day events.