Maurice and Eva turned in opposite directions (5)
I believe the answer is:
ravel
'maurice' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'eva turned in opposite directions' is the wordplay.
'turned' indicates anagramming the letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'opposite' says the letters should be written in reverse (I've seen 'opposite of' mean this).
'directions' becomes 'lr' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'lr' back-to-front is 'rl'.
'eva' is an anagram of 'ave'.
'ave' inserted inside 'rl' is 'RAVEL'.
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ravel that I've seen before include "Tangle or become tangled" , "Composer of the orchestral piece, Bolero, d. 1937" , "note-writer observed" , "French composer, Maurice (1875-1937)" , "Bolero's composer" .)