Different.

I am not an opera fan, but I do occasionally catch the ovation network while doing something else. I managed to see this clip not once, but twice the other day 12-odd hours apart. Frankly, I find Russell Oberlin's vocals haunting. The first time I watched this I thought WTF? But subsequent viewings spun me right round. And yes. America's foremost countertenor without employing the falsetto technique. This from a 1962 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. 'I know a bank where the wild thyme grows'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnbgpIDzQEU