Healey Willan's opera "Deirdre" was initially written for Canadian Radio in 1945 and revised for stage in 1965. Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 6, ("the Tragic") of 1948 is an orchestral prologue to an opera that Brian planned to make of the play. The opera was not started because of copyright issues. Karl Rankl completed his opera on the play in 1951, commissioned by the Arts Council for the Festival of Britain, though the BBC and Covent Garden failed to perform the piece. Rafael Kubelik made preparations to perform the piece in the early 1950s, but the plans once again fell through, due, he said, to "politics". Rankl eventually extracted an orchestral suite for large orchestra from the score in 1956. The BBC finally performed excerpts from the opera in 1995. Other operas on the same theme include Marguerite Béclard d'Harcourt's "Dierdane" (after Synge's play, 1941), John J. Becker's "Deirdre of the Sorrows" (also after Synge, 1945), Fré Focke's "Deirdre" (1949), David Armstrong's "Deirdre" (1965), Curtis K. Hughes's "Deirdre of the Sorrows" (1996), and Frederick Frayling-Kelly's "Deirdre" (2009).