Francesco Domenico Araja (or Araia, Russian: Арайя) (June 25, 1709 in Naples, Kingdom of Sicily – between 1762 and 1770 in Bologna, States of the Church) was an Italian composer who spent 25 years in Russia and wrote at least 14 operas for the Russian Imperial Court including Tsefal i Prokris, the first opera in Russian.[1]
- ^ There is another arguable information that in 1751 Araja composed an opera Титово милосердие (La Clemenza di Tito) to the Russian libretto (probably translated from Italian) by famous Russian actor and later opera composer Fyodor Volkov.