There is a commerical for grand theft auto III on TV and the
background is an opera - what's the name of the opera?

Hi there!

Searching Google led me very quickly to what I had  suspected (being
an opera lover):

The Opera is Puccini's "O Mio Bambino Caro", from "Gianni Schicchi". 
There is a discussion on a now unavailable web page - fortunately, it
was still available in Google's cache.  I've fed the cache URL to
MakeAShorterLink.com for ease of use:

Google Cache - GTA III Discussion
[ http://makeashorterlink.com/?M25012AF ]

Just to confirm, I looked for a sound sample, and found it here:

Follow down to " O Mio Babbino Caro (Gianni Schicchi : Puccini) - Joan
Hammond"
[ http://www.emusic.com/albums/22115/ ]

You can listen to the sample in either .mp3 or RealPlayer format.

...and if you really like the commercial, you can download it from
RockStarGames here:

GTA III Commercial 
[ http://rockstargames.com/grandtheftauto3/html/news.html ]

Better now?

missy "I can name that tune in 6 notes!" -ga