Dramatic work co-op oddly abandoned ahead of time (5)
I believe the answer is:
opera
'dramatic work' is the definition.
(I know that opera is a type of dramatico-musical work)
'co-op oddly abandoned ahead of time' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'op' is found in the answer.
'time' could be 'era' (an era is a period of time) and 'era' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for opera that I've seen before include "Musical extravaganza" , "Musical stage work" , "Musical works" , "Drama or comedy set to music" , "Eg, Don Giovanni" .)