Aida, say, longing to be topless with artist (5)
I believe the answer is:
opera
'aida say' is the definition.
(Aida is an example)
'longing to be topless with artist' is the wordplay.
'longing' becomes 'hope' (hope can mean a longing for something).
'to be topless' means to remove the first letter.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'hope' with its initial letter taken off is 'ope'.
'ope'+'ra'='OPERA'
(Other definitions for opera that I've seen before include "Throw a rope for the musical" , "Stage entertainment" , "Tosca, for example" , "E.g. Macbeth, Falstaff" , "Musical stage work" .)