Half record Italian's performance? (7)

I believe the answer is:

recital

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'performance?' is the definition.
(I know that recital is a type of performance)

'half record italian's' is the wordplay.
'half' means to take half the letters.
'italian's' becomes 'ital' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'record' cut in half is 'rec'.
'rec'+'ital'='RECITAL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for recital that I've seen before include "gig" , "Telling" , "Public performance by a solo musician" , "Narration" , "Musician's performance" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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