The condensation of (+)-7, 7-dimethoxynorbornen-2-one with the cerium reagent derived from enantiopure bromide (+)-11 gives rise to an exo carbinol, which readily undergoes highly stereocontrolled anionic oxy-Cope rearrangement. Conversion of the resulting ketone into 20 proceeds with clean epimerization at C-11 (spinosyn numbering) to properly set the absolute configuration at that site. Reduction of 20 with lithium in liquid ammonia serves to ...