He graduated in violin and composition at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in
Milan (Italy), Lavagnino deserves a special place in film music for his
contribution to documentaries. He gave reportages a new dimension; he
did not elaborate folkloristic themes, neither he passively adapts the
instruments of a certain musical civilization: he identifies the
elements that characterize a country under the "sound profile" and
gives a plausible equivalent. For this aim, Lavagnino uses all the
possibilities given by modern technology, his goal is to "build" a
sound. The main collaborator of a musician is no more the orchestra
director, but the sound engineer. This attitude did not prevent
Lavagnino from producing great orchestra music. In the classical field,
he wrote a Concert for violin and orchestra and a Mass for chorus and
orchestra. He began composing for cinema in 1951, for film director
Orson Welles' Othello. Since then, he wrote music for hundreds of films,
among which: Nero's Weekend (Neros tolle Nächte (1956)) with Gloria Swanson and Brigitte Bardot, Die nackte Maja (1958)
with Ava Gardner, Imperial Venus (Kaiserliche Venus (1962)) with Gina Lollobrigida, Falstaff (Falstaff - Glocken um Mitternacht (1965))
directed by and starring Orson Welles, and many others.
