Russian Tsar Era Classics — The Government Inspector, Part 1, by Nikolai Gogol
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
A dramatized performance by the KacheliTV cast, in a fresh English translation made for this recording.
Part 1 of 2.
A small provincial town is thrown into panic by the news that a government inspector is coming — incognito. The Mayor and every official in town have something to hide, and when a penniless young traveller from the capital is mistaken for the dreaded inspector, they fall over themselves to bribe, flatter and feast him. Ivan Khlestakov, a nobody with a vivid imagination, rises to the occasion magnificently — until the real inspector is announced. Gogol's comedy of fear, vanity and corruption has been delighting and stinging audiences since 1836, and it has lost none of its bite.
The Acts
00:00 Opening theme and the cast of characters
06:25 Act One — the Mayor's house: the dreaded news, and two gentlemen with a report from the inn
38:42 Act Two — at the inn: Osip's master, hungry and broke, meets the terrified Mayor
1:07:36 Act Three — the Mayor's house: Khlestakov holds court, and lies rise to poetry
(Acts Four and Five are in Part 2.)
Theme music: "Bandoneo_n_Street_Romance" (instrumental), heard at the opening and between the acts. No music plays under the narration.
Source: Nikolai Gogol, «Ревизор» (The Government Inspector), first performed and published in 1836 — public domain. Russian text via ilibrary.ru. Translated fresh into English for KacheliTV; no existing translation was used. The cast: Lulu (narrator), Orson (the Mayor), Felix (Khlestakov), Scratch (Osip), Magnolia (Anna Andreyevna), Violetta (Marya Antonovna), and the KacheliTV company.
