Musical turned into a surgical exercise (9)

I believe the answer is:

operation

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'a surgical exercise' is the definition.
'operation' can be an answer for 'exercise' (thesaurus). I'm unsure of the 'a surgical' bit.

'musical turned into' is the wordplay.
'musical' becomes 'opera' (I've seen this before).
'turned' is an anagram indicator.
'into' anagrammed gives 'tion'.
'opera'+'tion'='OPERATION'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for operation that I've seen before include "working" , "To one pair (anag.)" , "Surgical or military piece of work" , "performance" , "running" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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