Olivia Giovetti
@oliviagiovetti.bsky.social
When I was 4, I dressed up as Mephistopheles from Faust for Halloween and corrected each of my grandparents' friends when they thought I was the devil.
Now I'm a cultural critic.
Web: oliviagiovetti.com
Substack: criticaldrift.org
Now I'm a cultural critic.
Web: oliviagiovetti.com
Substack: criticaldrift.org
Pinned
“Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.”
There is a part of me that loves how this latest Epstein data dump includes the full text of The 4-Hour Workweek. (cc @notalawyer.bsky.social even though I'm sure he's already seen this.)
November 14, 2025 at 6:01 PM
There is a part of me that loves how this latest Epstein data dump includes the full text of The 4-Hour Workweek. (cc @notalawyer.bsky.social even though I'm sure he's already seen this.)
"The history of classical music is not one of peace or universality — it’s one of rupture… When artists today demand that their work hover above the conflicts around them, they’re not defending tradition or history; they’re abandoning it."
Music Unties
Classical musicians continue to insist that art has nothing to do with politics.
oliviagiovetti.substack.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:39 PM
"The history of classical music is not one of peace or universality — it’s one of rupture… When artists today demand that their work hover above the conflicts around them, they’re not defending tradition or history; they’re abandoning it."
When you "believe in people" but you use GPT to write your carousel statement for IG.
November 11, 2025 at 6:22 PM
When you "believe in people" but you use GPT to write your carousel statement for IG.
Hot take: People who actively profited off of the mindfulness industrial complex and charged members of a school of Buddhism to discuss the SA charges brought against that school’s leader don’t get to take the wheel of this discussion.
November 10, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Hot take: People who actively profited off of the mindfulness industrial complex and charged members of a school of Buddhism to discuss the SA charges brought against that school’s leader don’t get to take the wheel of this discussion.
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
‘When Maksym’s father, Zakhar Berkhut (bass Taras Berezhansky), sings about “glorious Kyiv lying in ruins” at the hands of the Mongol-Tatar horde, it has all the subtlety of an FGM-148 Javelin.’
@oliviagiovetti.bsky.social at the Lviv National Opera.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
@oliviagiovetti.bsky.social at the Lviv National Opera.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
Olivia Giovetti | At the Lviv National Opera
The Lviv National Opera opened to the public on 4 October 1900. It has remained open for the last 125 years under nine...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 9:50 AM
‘When Maksym’s father, Zakhar Berkhut (bass Taras Berezhansky), sings about “glorious Kyiv lying in ruins” at the hands of the Mongol-Tatar horde, it has all the subtlety of an FGM-148 Javelin.’
@oliviagiovetti.bsky.social at the Lviv National Opera.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
@oliviagiovetti.bsky.social at the Lviv National Opera.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
A few more thoughts on The Golden Crown, Ukrainian opera's place in the repertoire, and the industry's selective solidarity.
Real Reactions
Borys Lyatoshynsky’s The Golden Crown in Lviv, selective solidarity everywhere else
www.criticaldrift.org
November 8, 2025 at 6:32 PM
A few more thoughts on The Golden Crown, Ukrainian opera's place in the repertoire, and the industry's selective solidarity.
I don't think I can handle the pressure of ruining both the workplace AND the Stadtbild.
November 8, 2025 at 3:23 PM
I don't think I can handle the pressure of ruining both the workplace AND the Stadtbild.
If there are moments in the first two acts of The Golden Crown that feel disjointed or rushed, particularly to an audience member not familiar with its source work as a cultural inheritance, the opera’s third act blew me away. Some thoughts from last month in Lviv for @lrb.co.uk
Olivia Giovetti | At the Lviv National Opera
The Lviv National Opera opened to the public on 4 October 1900. It has remained open for the last 125 years under nine...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 4:43 PM
If there are moments in the first two acts of The Golden Crown that feel disjointed or rushed, particularly to an audience member not familiar with its source work as a cultural inheritance, the opera’s third act blew me away. Some thoughts from last month in Lviv for @lrb.co.uk
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
Re-upping the dedication of Mahmood Mamdani's 2020 book, 'Neither Settler nor Native'.
November 5, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Re-upping the dedication of Mahmood Mamdani's 2020 book, 'Neither Settler nor Native'.
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
Dick Cheney once had an 8-page, single-spaced cease-and-desist letter sent to us at WhiteHouse.Org, which we published but otherwise ignored. He was incensed about his wife's "Biography." I added the following, which was reported on CNN and quoted in The New York Times. #StreisandEffect
November 4, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Dick Cheney once had an 8-page, single-spaced cease-and-desist letter sent to us at WhiteHouse.Org, which we published but otherwise ignored. He was incensed about his wife's "Biography." I added the following, which was reported on CNN and quoted in The New York Times. #StreisandEffect
Wait who did Cheney endorse in the NYC mayoral campaign
November 4, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Wait who did Cheney endorse in the NYC mayoral campaign
As it turns out I have accumulated a lot of flea market art and objects that are gathering dust and should really be enjoyed by someone so I’m back on Etsy for the first time in 16 years www.etsy.com/de-en/shop/n...
www.etsy.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:57 PM
As it turns out I have accumulated a lot of flea market art and objects that are gathering dust and should really be enjoyed by someone so I’m back on Etsy for the first time in 16 years www.etsy.com/de-en/shop/n...
I hate gay Halloween what do you mean you’re not the devil you’re actually Joseph Rouleau in the 1973 Who’s Afraid of Opera version of Gounod’s Faust
November 1, 2025 at 8:47 AM
I hate gay Halloween what do you mean you’re not the devil you’re actually Joseph Rouleau in the 1973 Who’s Afraid of Opera version of Gounod’s Faust
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
And all while building a ballroom.
starving over 40 million people right before major holidays + massively upping healthcare costs does strike me as a rather bold move this early in the authoritarian consolidation game for any given fascist regime, but I guess we’ll see what happens
October 27, 2025 at 9:23 AM
And all while building a ballroom.
The only thing that should frighten anyone about Mamdani is his theatre-kid energy.
October 23, 2025 at 4:33 PM
The only thing that should frighten anyone about Mamdani is his theatre-kid energy.
Bret Stephens is at Google now?
New: Google has a bed bug outbreak in its New York offices: www.wired.com/story/theres...
Google Has a Bed Bug Infestation in Its Manhattan Offices
Employees at Google’s Chelsea office were told to stay home after exterminators found “credible evidence” of an infestation.
www.wired.com
October 22, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Bret Stephens is at Google now?
You’re telling me that Curtis Sliwa and JoJo Siwa are two different people
October 20, 2025 at 3:21 AM
You’re telling me that Curtis Sliwa and JoJo Siwa are two different people
Konzept: All-female Billy Budd and it’s set in a high school a la Jennifer’s Body.
October 9, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Konzept: All-female Billy Budd and it’s set in a high school a la Jennifer’s Body.
Shevshchenko lassoes the moon, Lviv
October 8, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Shevshchenko lassoes the moon, Lviv
In Poland talking in French with my South African cab driver about the political situation in Burkina Faso as he drives me to a meet-up point for my trip into Ukraine. What a world.
October 8, 2025 at 8:04 AM
In Poland talking in French with my South African cab driver about the political situation in Burkina Faso as he drives me to a meet-up point for my trip into Ukraine. What a world.
Can pre-crime get you pregnant or is that just a myth they teach you in abstinence-only Marxism?
Donald Trump's new security directive labels anti-capitalist beliefs as a predictor of political violence.
The irony: left-wing structural analysis actually pushes people away from lone-wolf attacks and toward mass organizing for change.
The irony: left-wing structural analysis actually pushes people away from lone-wolf attacks and toward mass organizing for change.
Trump Classifies “Anti-Capitalism” as a Political Pre-Crime
Donald Trump’s new security directive labels anti-capitalist beliefs as a predictor of political violence. The irony: left-wing structural analysis actually pushes people away from lone-wolf attacks and toward mass organizing for change.
jacobin.com
October 2, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Can pre-crime get you pregnant or is that just a myth they teach you in abstinence-only Marxism?
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
During the curtain call for Verdi’s 1847 Macbeth in Busseto last night, two of the dancers laid a Palestinian flag on the stage. Most of the audience kept applauding though there were a few boos. And you had to wonder which part of ‘gli oppressi corriamo a salvar’ the booers hadn’t heard.
September 28, 2025 at 1:54 PM
During the curtain call for Verdi’s 1847 Macbeth in Busseto last night, two of the dancers laid a Palestinian flag on the stage. Most of the audience kept applauding though there were a few boos. And you had to wonder which part of ‘gli oppressi corriamo a salvar’ the booers hadn’t heard.
One must imagine Sisyphus redpilled.
September 28, 2025 at 12:12 PM
One must imagine Sisyphus redpilled.
I don't know what to say anymore but at least I'm not about to start arguing that Ivan Khovansky was practicing politics the right way.
Killing Khovansky
1,041 words about the past that have absolutely nothing to do with the present (until they do)
www.criticaldrift.org
September 23, 2025 at 5:29 PM
I don't know what to say anymore but at least I'm not about to start arguing that Ivan Khovansky was practicing politics the right way.
Gorilla Gluing my head to my desk
September 23, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Gorilla Gluing my head to my desk