Angelo Francesco Lavagnino(1909-1987)
- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
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 (Nero's Mistress (1956)) with Gloria Swanson and Brigitte Bardot, The Naked Maja (1958)
with Ava Gardner, Imperial Venus (Imperial Venus (1962)) with Gina Lollobrigida, Falstaff (Chimes at Midnight (1965))
directed by and starring Orson Welles, and many others.
