Igor Golovatenko

Biography

Igor Golovatenko is a first prize winner of the St Petersburg ‘Three Centuries of Classical Romance’ international piano-vocal duets competition (2008) and a second prize winner in Dresden’s International vocal competition, the Competizione dell’Opera (2011).

Igor Golovatenko studied at the Moscow Academy of the Choral Arts with Professor Dmitry Vdovin.
Made his debut in the 2006 Russian premiere of Delius’ Eine Messe des Lebens with the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Spivakov.

In 2007-2014 he was a soloist with the Novaya Opera, where his roles included Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore, Germont in La Traviata, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia directed by Elijah Moshinsky, Olivier in Capriccio, Robert in Iolanta and the title role of Eugene Onegin.

Igor Golovatenko made his debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in 2010 as Dr. Falke in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus.
In 2014 he joined the Bolshoi Theatre Opera Company.

Repertoire

at the Bolshoi Theatre:

Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus)
Lopakhine (Philippe Fénelon’s La Cerisaie) — world premiere
Giorgio Germont (La Traviata)
Rodrigo (Don Carlo)
Lionel (The Maid of Orleans)
Marcello (La Boheme)
Robert (Iolanta)
Dr. Malatesta (Don Pasquale)
Lescaut (Manon Lescaut)
Prince Yeletsky (The Queen of Spades)
Andrei Shchelkalov (Boris Godunov)
Don Alvaro (Il Viaggio a Reims)
title part (Eugene Onegin)
Renato (Un ballo in Maschera)

In January 2017 he performed Don Alvaro in Il Viaggio a Reims at the Bolshoi Theatre (concert version, conductor Tugan Sokhiev), and in 2018 sang the same part in new production of the opera (director Damiano Michieletto).

Tours

In the 2011/12 season he made his debut at the Paris National Opera as Lopakhine in a production of Philippe Fénelon’s La Cerisaie conducted by Tito Ceccherini and directed by Georges Lavaudant. He also debuted at the Teatro Massimo of Palermo as Shchelkalov and Rangoni in Boris Godunov (directed by Hugo De Ana; Ferruccio Furlanetto as Boris Godunov), and at the San Carlo Theatre of Naples as Guy de Montfort in Les vêpres siciliennes conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti.

Highlights of the 2012/13 season included Renato in Un ballo in maschera at the Teatro Sociale di Rovigo and Opera Giocosa di Savona, Seid in Il corsaro at the Teatro Verdi Trieste, Rigoletto at the Opera Giocosa di Savona (directed by Rolando Panerai), Shchelkalov in Boris Godunov at the Bavarian State Opera (conducted by Kent Nagano, directed by Calixto Bieito).

In the 2013/14 season he sang Renato in Un ballo in maschera at theTeatro Donizetti di Bergamo and Carlo Gustavo in Foroni’s Christina regina di Svezia at the Wexford Opera Festival.
In 2014, at the Wexford Opera Festival he took part in production of Strauss’ Salome as Iokanaan. He also debuted as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires.

In 2015 he made his debut as Severo in Donizetti’ s Poliuto at Glyndebourne Festival Opera (conducted by Enrique Mazzola, directed by Mariame Clément), and returned in 2017 for Giorgio Germont in La Traviata.

In the 2015/16 season he sang Count di Luna in Il trovatore at the Latvian National Opera, Opéra de Lille, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and Bayerische Staatsoper; Giorgio Germont in La traviata at the Ópera Nacional de Chile.

In April 2017 he appeared as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Oper Köln.
In July 2017, he sang the title part in Eugene Onegin concert performance, and the part of Robert in Iolanta on the Bolshoi Theatre Opera Company tour to Aix-en-Profence and Savonlinna (conductor Tugan Sokhiev). He also appear at the Opéra de Bordeaux as Ernesto in Il Pirata (in concert, conductor Paul Daniel).

In 2018 he starred as Prince Yeletsky in Pique Dame (Hans Neuenfels’ production, conductor Mariss Jansons) at the Salzburger Festspiele, Conte di Luna (Il Trovatore) at the Bavarian State Opera, Enrico Ashton (Lucia di Lammermoor) at the Dresden Semper Opera.
In the 2018/2019 season, Igor Golovatenko had a series of significant house debuts at Washington National Opera with the title part in Eugine Onegin (conductor Robert Trevino, original production by Robert Carsen, director Peter McClintock), The Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Los Angeles Opera, both — with Giorgio Germont in La Traviata production, and Opera Bastille with Sir Riccardo Forth (I puritani).
He was also critically acclaimed as Rodrigo in Don Carlos at the Wiener Staatsoper, September 2020. In 2021, debuted at the Teatro Regio in Parma as Simon Boccanegra.

On the concert platform Igor Golovatenko has appeared with the Yaroslavl Symphony Orchestra (Rachmaninov’s The Bells conducted by Murad Annamamedov), the Russian National Orchestra (Grieg’s Peer Gynt conducted by Mikhail Pletnev), the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra (concert performances of La Traviata conducted by Christoph-Mathias Mueller).

Recently took part in a concert performance of Eugene Onegin with the Russian National Orchestra and Moscow State Chamber Choir conducted by Mikhail Pletnev at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. In addition, he regularly performs at the Russian National Orchestra Festival.