Beginning of work involving Italian singer (8)
I believe the answer is:
baritone
'singer' is the definition.
(I know that baritone is a type of singer)
'beginning of work involving italian' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is located in the answer.
'italian' could be 'it' (common abbreviation) and 'it' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for baritone that I've seen before include "Male singer looks odd in boater" , "Male voice between bass and tenor" , "One who can sing" , "Adult male singing voice" , "Male singer in boater, strangely" .)