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Review of historical novel
L A P L E V I T S K A Y A 
- A Gypsy Singer’s Life in Tsarist Russia and in Exile -by Valeriy Filatov, formerly "New Generation" newspaper,Alma Ata, Kazakhstan
S I N G I N G I N H A D E S
‘La Plevitskaya’ is a historical novel written in English by nativeGerman speaker and writer Ally Hauptmann-Gurski on the subject of Russian history, culture, and music. It is a biography of a once very fa-mous Gypsy singer Nadezhda Plevitskaya .......Ally Hauptmann-Gurski discovered a gramophone record of twofolk songs by Plevitskaya accompanied by Sergey Rakhmaninov which was truly amazing since Rakhmaninov was known as a musician whorefused to make recordings as an accompanist. Not even Shalyapin, whoused to be a close friend of his, ever had the priviledge. .........The story of Plevitskaya’s life is an example of a destiny of anextraordinary talent during extreme times. There are no doubts aboutPlevitskaya’s exceptionality.Every Gypsy tabor had talented singers but Plevitskaya was theonly one who became His Imperial Majesty’s Soloist. ...................The writer convincingly motivates Plevitskaya’s active participationin her husband’s deeds with her efforts to gain forgiveness from theKremlin and permission to go back to Russia at any price.....................The subject of music and in particular the Russian musical culture,is of course one of the most important themes in the novel. The authorshows that diffusion between the upper and lower strata was a significantcharacteristic of the Russian musical culture of the beginning of the 20thcentury. This significance was embodied not only by the sounds of folktunes (including those of the Gypsies) in the compositions of Rakhmaninov and Stravinsky, but also in the destinies of Shalyapin and
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