Possibly operatic figure or singer (5)
I believe the answer is:
tenor
'possibly operatic' is the definition.
'tenor' can be an answer for 'operatic' (thesaurus). I'm not certain of the 'possibly' bit.
'figure or singer' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'figure' could be 'ten' (ten is a number) and 'ten' is found within the answer.
'or' is found in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tenor that I've seen before include "theme" , "Male voice (one of three?)" , "Pitch range" , "Vocal part" , "Placido Domingo, say" .)