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.”
No wonder he sired so many children.
November 24, 2025 at 9:56 AM
No wonder he sired so many children.
That rest at the start of Beethoven’s Fifth, the silent beat that Epstein insisted “changes the whole dynamic” is an indictment of the world that enabled him. Silence — institutional, social, and cultural — shaped the dynamic of Epstein’s ascent.
Of Course Jeffrey Epstein Was a Beethoven Fan
The complicitous silence of cultural capital
www.criticaldrift.org
November 20, 2025 at 1:35 PM
That rest at the start of Beethoven’s Fifth, the silent beat that Epstein insisted “changes the whole dynamic” is an indictment of the world that enabled him. Silence — institutional, social, and cultural — shaped the dynamic of Epstein’s ascent.
I love it when the algo rhymes
November 20, 2025 at 8:06 AM
I love it when the algo rhymes
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
This bodes well for the likelihood of mass violence in the future
U.S. and Israeli soldiers, foreign diplomats and aid workers are congregated in a warehouse in central Israel to talk about the future of Gaza. One key group is missing: Palestinians.
Palestinian Voices Absent from U.S.-Run Center Planning Gaza’s Future
U.S. and Israeli soldiers, foreign diplomats and aid workers are congregated in a warehouse in central Israel to talk about the future of Gaza. One key group is missing: Palestinians.
nyti.ms
November 18, 2025 at 12:50 PM
This bodes well for the likelihood of mass violence in the future
Someone should show Megyn Kelly this document from the Epstein Files: an email forward of historical photos. The sender instructs Epstein and someone named Warren to ”go directly to photo #9.” The image is of five-year-old Lina Medina after giving birth.
November 17, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Someone should show Megyn Kelly this document from the Epstein Files: an email forward of historical photos. The sender instructs Epstein and someone named Warren to ”go directly to photo #9.” The image is of five-year-old Lina Medina after giving birth.
"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?