Old piano delivered before time for stage performance (5)
I believe the answer is:
opera
'stage performance' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'old piano delivered before time' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'old' could be 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English) and 'o' is located in the answer.
'piano' could be 'p' (musical abbreviation) and 'p' is located in the answer.
'time' could be 'era' (an era is a period of time) and 'era' is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for opera that I've seen before include "works in Latin" , "Musical entertainment" , "eg 'Aida'" , "Billy Budd, for instance" , "Dramatic genre" .)