A novel approach to the tricyclic core of the Stemona alkaloids stemofoline and didehydrostemofoline has been discovered that features an intramolecular (3+2) dipolar cycloaddition of an unactivated carbon–carbon double bond with an azomethine ylide; the azomethine ylide was generated by an unprecedented reaction that occurred during a Swern oxidation of an α-(N-cyanomethyl)-β-hydroxy ester. In separate experiments, the efficacy of introducing the requisite oxygen functionality at C(8) and the 1-butenyl side chain at C(3) was established.