Yes the tree can survive but it will not appreciate you pruning it to half height. A tree when it gets pruned reacts by sending up more growth and less fruit. Fruit buds are typical on older branches not young branches with pears. Once a branch is 3 years old it will have many fruit buds but a one year old branch will hsve no fruit buds. So a pear tree when threatened by excessive loss of branches grows more branches and less fruit as mentioned. A herbivore might browse on a pear tree so the pear tree will attempt to put on new growth quickly to outgrow that browsing herbivore. In this case if you act like the herbivore the tree will send up rapid growth and reduced fruit until it gets back to its normal size. If you take off 5% per year it invigorates the tree and the tree may benefit from that in many locations. You have lost many of your pear producing branches already for the next 2 years. If you prune off more branches you could lose all pears for years to come. Back to your question can you prune a pear tree down and keep it short the answer is yes but its a 3 year minimum commitment with little fruit. See this link Pear trees that produce bushels of fruit and avoid disease
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