Igor Golovatenko trained in Moscow with Dmitri Vdovin and made his stage debut in 2006 at the Russian premiere of Eine Messe des Lebens by Frederick Delius with the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra. A soloist at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, he has performed the major roles of the baritone repertoire there.
He appears on the leading international opera stages in roles such as Riccardo (I Puritani), Severo (Poliuto), Enrico Ashton (Lucia di Lammermoor), Marullo (Rigoletto), Rodrigue (Don Carlo), Count di Luna (Il trovatore), and the title role in Eugene Onegin. In recent seasons, he has notably portrayed Guy de Montfort (Les Vêpres siciliennes) in Vienna and Aix-en-Provence, Iago (Otello) in Vienna and Rome, Don Carlo di Vargas (La forza del destino) and Prince Yeletsky (The Queen of Spades) in New York, Baron Scarpia (Tosca) in Moscow and Rome, and the title role in Rigoletto in Chicago.
During the 2025–2026 season, he notably appears as Carlo Gérard (Andrea Chénier) and in the title role of Eugene Onegin in Budapest and New York, as well as in the title roles of Rigoletto in Munich and Nabucco in Berlin.
He makes his debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.