Typed letter signed to Manuel Rosenthal - "I am used to the unlimited spaces that the technology of cinema provides"

Used; Like New/Used; Like New. TLS of the legendary Italian filmmaker to Manuel Rosenthal, one of the most influential and respected French conductors of the 20th century. Rome, August 6, 1973. 1 p. Fellini responds to a "proposition" by Rosenthal to stage Ravel's opera L'enfant et les sortilèges. Excerpt, translated from French: "As I told you, I am interested both in Colette's libretto and in the score. However, the restricted space of a theatrical stage frightens me. I am used to the unlimited spaces that the technology of cinema provides, and I am afraid I would not succeed in responding to the demands of an Italian stage and to those of a predetermined deadline."11 x 7.75 inches (28.4 x 19.5 cm). Punch holes to left margin. Otherwise in fine condition.
Fellini won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Film four times, more than anyone else, and an honorary Academy Award in addition. But throughout his life he showed little interest in the stage and remained devoted to the screen. He never directed an opera.

The French composer and conductor Manuel Rosenthal held leading positions with musical organizations in France and America. He was friends with many of his contemporary composers, and despite a considerable list of compositions is mostly remembered for having created the popular ballet score Gaîté Parisienne and left a varied legacy of recordings.  Rosenthal's ties with many French composers, and especially with Maurice Ravel, gave him an unrivalled authority in the contemporary French repertory. "In 1926, Ravel invited him to bring him some of his compositions. From being one of Ravel's rare pupils, Rosenthal soon became a friend, and he left moving tributes to the maître in articles and interviews, as well as the book Ravel: Souvenirs De Manuel Rosenthal (1995). Rosenthal tried to emulate Ravel's example of perfectionism, with memories of many a laboriously completed exercise torn up and dropped in Ravel's waste-paper basket.
It was Ravel who decided Rosenthal's future as a conductor. In 1928 he persuaded the Concerts Pasdeloup to devote a concert to Rosenthal's works and to engage him to conduct it. Never having been on a rostrum before, Rosenthal was terrified, but among those impressed was the celebrated conductor Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht; when he founded the French National Orchestra in 1934, he took on Rosenthal as his assistant." (Roger Nichols, The Guardian, "Manuel Rosenthal: Obituary," June 8, 2003).