Master versus riotous characters in new form (8)
I believe the answer is:
virtuoso
'master' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'versus riotous characters in new form' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'versus' could be 'v' and 'v' is found in the answer.
an anagram of 'riotous' is 'irtuoso' which is present 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 virtuoso that I've seen before include "Very skilled artist" , "Great musical performer" , "Person who excels in technique, as in playing musical instrument" , "maestro?" , "Paganini" .)