The song is a showpiece for coloratura sopranos and is the only work of Alyabyev to become part of the standard performance repertory.
6" in the second volume of Delvig's and Pushkin's almanac Northern Flowers, which was approved for printing by the censor on 26 February 1826.
Кто-то, бедная, как я, Ночь прослушает тебя, Не смыкаючи очей, Утопаючи в слезах?
Побывай во всех странах, В деревнях и городах: Не найти тебе нигде Горемычнее меня.
[5] The song became known outside Russia after Pauline Viardot introduced it into Rosina's singing lesson scene in Rossini's The Barber of Seville.
By the early years of the twentieth century, the song had become a popular choice to showcase singers who would add their own cadenzas to ornament the melody.
[6] Vocal pedagogue Estelle Liebling wrote an English-language adaptation of the song which was published under the title "The Russian Nightingale" in 1928.