Though known in the US mainly as a songwriter and performer, Eric is also an accomplished writer with a lifelong interest and involvement in the theatre. He has composed complete libretti for two grand operas and is at work on a third. He won his first commission in 2012 from Vera Tariverdiev, widow of the revered Russian composer Mikhail Tariverdiev, whose masterpiece, the comic grand opera “Cagliostro,” had been lavishly staged in Russia but never rendered into English. Eric completed his version in 2013 and Ms. Tariverdiev flew to New York to attend his reading. She declared the result “a work of genius” and exclaimed the her husband’s “lifelong dream has finally come true” and that he “is smiling down now from Heaven.” A full-scale production of the new English version is currently in the works.
“Cagliostro” in English came to the attention of the noted contemporary composer Margarita Zelenaia, whose grand opera “Caligula” existed only in a Russian version with a libretto based loosely on the play by Albert Camus (1944). Ms. Zelenaia commissioned Eric to compose a new version, and upon hearing early samples of the work agreed to grant Eric wide latitude in reinterpreting the original, updating its themes, reworking characters and developing a radically different concept for its staging. The result, entitled “Caligula’s Favorite Play,” won the approval of the French imprint Gallimard and the blessing of the estate of Albert Camus to proceed with production under the aegis of the legendary Existentialist.
