He was fortunate to be encouraged and supported by Josip Hatze, Cyril Metoděj Hrazdira and Antun Dobronić who instilled him with a nationalistic orientation in music.

Between 1923 and 1958, he was the opera conductor at the Croatian National Theatre (Hrvatsko narodno kazalište), and leader of an academic musical society Mladost, and of the choir Vladimir Nazor.

His best-known work is Ero s onoga svijeta (a libretto written by Milan Begović) which has been performed on all continents except Australia,[citation needed] and has been translated into nine languages.

In his works, Gotovac represents the late national romanticism, with Croatian folklore being the main source of ideas and inspiration.

Musically, he prefers homophonic textures[clarification needed] and fairly simple harmonic structures in keeping with the folk idiom he admired.