Added: 3 years ago
From: Thrax1982
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  • people call this guy gay and weird and our music is nothing like this..... excuse me but what about the 80's glam rock?! those dudes screamed "high" notes, wore skinny jeans, and had long hair.... tell me THAT's not gay

  • this guy has to watch out for pedobear i think

  • He's not a faggot, he's like me. I've been in choir since around 6th grade, and after puberty discovered that I may hit anywhere between bass and soprano 2. Therefore, this seems to be natural, yet somewhat uncommon. And I assure you, I still have every manly part I was born with. And YES, I was born with said manly parts.

  • @hammondleel94 fuck off troll.

  • I could sing the infamous "Queen Of The Night" aria (super F) until my mid-twenties; now considerably older, I am still comfortable up to a high C - both pianissimo and fortissimo.

    And I can assure you I am perfectly formed with no bits missing!

    There's a rather crappy iPhone vid on my channel of me performing one of my faves, "O Mio Babbino Caro"; check it out!

  • my god....he's voice is beautiful! ahahaahha

  • damn is all i can say. he can go higher than me lol

  • I think it was in this TV programme that Michael Maniaci sang the Largo from Handel's Xerxes. It was absolutely exquisite & beautifully controlled, but I can't find it on Youtube. Does anyone have it? I'd love to hear it again. I don't care how he creates his sound - I just love to hear it. Thanks.

  • it think his voice goes soprano level but he cant go deep i sing falsetto and its peta easy to go deep and sometimes versatile

  • TRUE MALE SOPRANO - it is a rather rare occurence in male singers

    having to do with the lack of development of the vocal chords past

    puberty. It is NOT falsetto, not castrato, not boy soprano, nor does it

    have a thing to do with gender identification - he might be gay or

    or straight, a moot point, irrelevant to the extraordinary voice

    Michael has. His speaking voice is within all average male speaking

    voices, that is not what distinguishes him in Opera.

  • this is crazy awesome! i didn't really realize that men's voices could be this high (i mean that in a good way)! it's truely incredible!

  • But... the pop singer Prince can sing falsetto softly!

  • No matter what your range or where your tessitura, MEN ARE NOT SOPRANOS. The term is exclussively used for women. The proper term is countertenor. IF you're feeling indulgent, sopranist is used by some to described men with soprano-like tessitura and range. BUT NOT SOPRANO.

  • He has balls right?

  • Love his voice and the discription of how his voice works, just like mine! Thanks for putting this up!!!

  • kind of reminds me of kd lang ,anyone else rekkon im right?

  • I saw Michael Last night in La Clemenza Di Tito In Toronto and he was amazing .

  • fascinating, thank heavens for mutants!

  • I was struck by how seemingly low he sounded when speaking

  • Fascinating. Thanks for posting this.

  • I wanna know what his hormones are like that kept him from developing normally through puberty. His speaking voice is weird. Were I to classify him from speaking, I'd call him a tenorino and yet he sings truly soprano rep WELL. bizarre.

  • Do you have anything material containing your natural chest voice?

  • The difference between Michael Maniaci and a counter-tenor like let's say Elfo Dannilu is that his vocal ability comes naturally and he does not use falsetto. Falsetto is the reason why most countertenors sound so much like women, if you listen closely to some of their higher notes, you can actually hear the distinct flunctuations which sound a lot like they are breaking.

  • his larynx did not develop right? i can do soprano range using falsetto... i am a male

  • The composer Johannes Brahms had a high voice too, which never changed much at all as he was growing up. I read about it in a biography. He didn't like it so he disguised it by speaking in a sort of growl! But obviously there was no hormonal reason - he grew a splendid beard and liked the ladies! And he wrote some of the most powerful, virile music ever heard.

  • Male sopranos and endocrinological castratos are not the same thing. Male soprano as a term connotes that the reason that the voice remains high is unknown. That means he can grow a beard also, which has actually been proven of him.

  • How can anyone dislike this video. Idiots...

  • @EmeraldSky33 It has something to do with envy I guess. :D

  • i know many men with speaking voices as high as maniaci's speaking voice

    it seems that this is not really that uncommon, i'm sure many of you know at least one man with a pretty naturally high voice (not an affectation)

  • @zzyzybynsky I assume his speaking voice sits near the bottom of his full range range

    For example, I'm a bass, but you totally wouldn't be able to tell, because I actually speak with a higher part of my voice. I can conciously speak lower, but I choose not to because I prefer having a more 'normal' sounding voice.

    I assume he chooses to speak with a lower voice, as to not stand out as unusual when he speaks.

  • @zzyzybynsky Speaking voice and range rarely correlate. He is speaking at the very bottom of his range, trying to sound more masculine. Most guys who speak in that range are at least in the upper-middle part of their range.

  • @zzyzybynsky He is more than likely speaking in his lower register. I know a lot of males who do this because they dislike the range of their normal speaking voice.

  • @zzyzybynsky It is extremely rare that men can sing like this naturally

  • @zzyzybynsky There are men with low voices and men with high voices. There are women with high voices and women with low voices. I theorize that we are brought up to believe that men only have deep voices usually and women only have high voices usually, and the ones that have voices contrary to this societal image disguise it. Which is depressing.

  • @zzyzybynsky I agree, I've encountered male speaking voices just as high. His pitch isn't what makes him rare but rather his ability to use it. His skill stands out from the already limited number of male sopranos. I've never been a fan of opera, ironically because I can't stand the high soprano, but Maniaci doesn't give me a mind splitting headache. He can hit the high notes, maybe I'm just so fascinated watching him it takes my mind off it! But my preferences aside, he is seriously talented.

  • Aww his voice is lovely!

  • No, it has nothing to do with testicular functioning, but rather adrenal gland and testosterone(baldness,libido,i­ron absorption,bone strengthening) metabolites and the distributores that work altogether. Dihydrotestosterone(facial and body hair)and 17-beta oestradiol(feminine traits) are the two metabolites of testosterone.

  • @WibbityWoobityWoolah distributors* And anyway, check out those Asian guys.Each of them just seems to have this set of pipes that is quite peculiar in terms of workings, haha.Cool.

  • Just curious, has he had some kind of nerve damage or a stroke? I'm really not trying to be mean, I just noticed some slackness to the muscles in his right cheek, his right eyebrow wasn't moving when his left would, and they definitely emphasized filming his left side while he sang.

  • @TenoreRobusto1347 But then again, maybe I'm just crazy.

  • He should do cartoon voices. :D

  • hes a fuckin mofo for having that voice no one can mess with him

  • wow nice voice lls 

  • If only he were as pretty as his voice is. I'd totally do him.

  • I bet he's a virgin

  • @seganerd89 I bet you are too.

  • For daily communication, this guy's voice is so weird.

  • Who is the countertenor who is interviewing him?

  • @90lysander His not a countertenor but a real male soprano. Please listen to the documentary before posting a comment.

  • @realitycheck2088 I know Maniaci isn't a countertenor - but the man who's interviewing him appears to be. I listened to the documentary; I was wanting to know who the other chap was.

    Being polite, while perhaps not general YouTube policy, is always nice.

  • Michael has an extraordinary voice!

  • he definately sounds like a male when talking though...

    strange, eh?

  • I can relate somewhat. I'm 19, and have already gone through puberty, my larynx has pretty much stopped growing but it's obvious that it is definitely smaller than most, I still talk naturally in a pretty high pitched voice compared to most guys my age that I've ever met and I can sing up to about an A5 without falsetto. I can still get pretty low too, surprisingly, but the high tenor/low alto tone is most natural for me.

  • You betta sing Mike!

  • he sounds like fucking mickey mouse

  • @b4hm3r

    This made me laugh,good one:D

  • @b4hm3r If you like to fuck mickey mouse, then you're quite sick.

  • @7beers

    when did i say that you goof

  • @dawg00000 I honestly pity the mind that composed this comment.

  • @7beers, why pity? Because you know in your heart Handel and Mozart collectively could not pick up James Brown's jockstrap?

  • The reason his speaking voice doesn't sound like a girl is only cause he's learned to speak in a more masculine way like most guys do.

    It's all psychological, his larynx is still about the size of a woman's but he talks like any guy would besides it being in a higher pitch

  • hes blessed to have such a unique voice

  • that giggle at 1:35 ahahah sums it all up

  • o snap..

  • I didn't make out much of what he was talking, smth about his cords and a soprano register. His vocal cords are just like any male cords judging by the way he speaks. He only has a well trained falsetto voice that sounds ALMOST like female. On the whole he sings well.

  • Nah he's not singing falsetto.

  • He doesn't even come close to falsetto in the song he sings.

    When a person is using falsetto(which i often do so) it will sqeeze a tiny bit of air out and under a whole lot of pressure to get to these high, fragile notes.

    Michael hasn't used falsetto, but is trained very well as a choirboy in his youth and besides...if he would only sing in the topregister of his voice he would destroy it himself.

    Why would a person that lives on his voice destroy it?!?

  • well, may be you are quite right but he sings in a contralto or low mezzo-soprano register. His voice doesn't sound as soprano at all.But his singing is so great I loved it so much!

  • @toni7777ful He is a soprano, don't tell me BBC world a reputable news program is making this up.

  • @realitycheck2088 I'd say he's not a soprano, but a sopranist.

  • Please allow embedding, I'd love to post this directly to my blog!

  • Mah-nee-ah-chee. I think.

  • Golden voice!

  • This was very informative! Thank you for posting.

  • This guy is amazing!

  • Just purchased his new CD which is now available! I love Michael's speaking voice as well. It has a beautiful, resonant tone. His little laugh is even soprano. :-)

  • He totally sounds like Mickey Mouse!

  • Maniaci releases his first solo album with Boston Baroque this month -- cant wait! he's delich!

  • amazing. -tear-

  • i lold

  • in fact, he sounds just like the young David Daniels. The only guy out there who sounds like 'something else' (and I am not saying we should look for something else) is Radu Marian. He does not sound like an american countertenor... this Maniaci guy DOES.

  • he sounds like a countertenor, exactly like one, though a very high one! why all the hype? and he speaks like a high tenor, not like a boy or a woman...

    please! this is just another big hoax to avoid being called 'effeminate' (kowalski's excuses and justifications that he was a 'natural alto' come to mind)

    ? I am sick of justifications. This man is a very good falsetto sopranist and THAT IS ALL

  • Is this on CD anywhere? I love the song on this video.

  • gorgeous gift from god!

  • I am sure he can do falsetto though, I wonder what it sounds like. I am sure it would be high but I am not sure it would be in the whistle range like some female singer can do.

  • OMG! Seems unreal! If you just look at him, then close ur eyes and listen, the image of a lavish female soprano comes to mind...

  • I saw him in 'Xerxes'. He was awesome, especially in 'Crude furie'.

  • Really? !!! Where and when was that? Think there's already a recording of that, that might pop up on YouTube? Oh what I'd give to hear THAT!

  • Gosh, that must've been at least six years ago...he was performing with a small company in Washington DC (NOT the National Opera) so I'm afraid it might be lost forever...

  • So, you think NOBODY, ABSOLUTELY NOBODY cared enough to videotape any of that? It would be such a SHAME if that's the case.

  • I really don't know...if anybody recorded it, i have never heard it. The Washington Post ran a very positive review, though the article's been archived by now..

    it was the summer of 2002, by the way.

  • Well, thanks for the info. In 2002 I had never heard of Michael Maniaci, and I wish I had.

  • That's interesting, but he can't sing lower than a soprano can, right?.

  • LOL

  • This is very interesting - I find the whole castrati/counter tenor (sopranist if you must - although I am averse to the term)/male soprano stuff really frascination.

    Listening to him with my eyes closed, the quality is similar to but still not exactly the same as a woman (as one would expect I would imagine), he sounds almost like a mezzo.  Very difficult to explain.

    Very beautiful.

  • Very interesting. I'd love to see him in a performance someday, he really has some amazing pipes.

  • Larynx people! DIDN"T DEVELOP! There is nothing genetic about it! He is NOT using falsetto.

  • No it's not falsetto, he said that, it's his modal voice. Proper singing voice. With amazing control I might add.

  • really? that's so awesome! I always thought it was falsetto....

  • Nope.

  • i could do that to and im a male! :) nice to know im not the only 1

  • Comment removed

  • No. You couldnt do that. At least not in your modal voice (your chest/head voice). He is the only person in the world who is a "Real" male soprano.

  • How do you know he can't do that? This was a very ignorant reply you made to someone who you don't know. There are MANY, though few relatively who can in full modal voice. He is NOT anything close to the only person! Him and the teacher seem to be ignorant of this as well. Please read my comments on the video at watch?v=zSXVPkwsQ-c and I hope I haven't offended you, just making a honest correction

  • @LarryRobinson93 Um, nope. There are a few. Just not as famous.

  • @LarryRobinson93 I doubt he's the only one. I mean, if there's one, there are others. Then again, I'm a girl and can't even hit that..

  • @Reiya67 There are other males who can hit that register, but they all had medical conditions that prevented them from experiencing puberty normally, look up "modern castrati" on wikipedia. Maniaci is the only normally developed male soprano.

  • @dschoneberg The only normally developed male soprano??? I agree with LarryRobinson93, hear me sing...

  • @LarryRobinson93 I like your comment, but I think I have to disagree with your last sentence. He's not the only real male soprano in the world. Infact my senior year in high school, we had a male soprano in All-state and he's like 4th chair soprano.

  • Dude, I apologize on behalf of the silly youtubers who replied presumptuously to your comment. If you can do this, you and this guy are still not the only ones, far from it.

  • Hes affecting his speaking voice . Just  like alot of baritones and basses with big ballsy bottom

  • Anybody know WHY his vocal chords didn't change much? Obviously he did indeed go through puberty, as I saw him with a beard in another video.

    What caused that?

  • its just his genetics would be my guess. a random mutation, for lack of a better description.

  • maniaci rocksssssss!!

  • what an amazing gift

  • and yet what a curse for im sure when he was in early adult hood he was the subject of much ridicule.

  • @hhn2002 Hey, we're all ridiculed at one time or another. The skin grows thick, and the talent remains.

  • @hhn2002 listen to him, he sounds rather normal apart from when he sings. People might mistake him for a nasal person or a shy squeaker, but not really make fun of it.

  • I'd still be interested to hear him sing in the tenor range. I once heard that Gigli made the same claim, that at puberty his voice didn't break to the same extent as other males, but still darkened over time, enabling him to sing with what we might call voix mixe, but which to him was just the one voice he had since childhood, with a range of colours. some also argue that male voices require "healing" after puberty, to restore the balance of muscular action, and resultant balance of "registers"

  • I kind of feel bad. His speaking voice is very strange. He got his voice because of a medical condition. Wow, thats crazy.

  • This is impressive.

  • this guy pulls all the women

  • His speaking voice is on the high side, but doesn't sound "female" per se.

  • it sounds female to me. Especially when i scroll down away from the vid to the comments and just listen to the audio.

  • @RockinRight hm, if you close your eyes he sounds quite female in his speaking voice, i think. or you might as well think he caught a cold... :)

  • @RockinRight

    right. I find that he was artificially lowering his speaking voice in order to fit into the two gender model we know now...

  • his normal speaking voice sounds pretty average, but his singing voice is definitely soprano, and a damn good one!

  • I wouldn't mistake his speaking voice for a woman's.

  • neither would I. I think his singing voice is beautiful though.

  • HAhahah.

  • they used to have to castrate someone to pull this off, that's why he's so impressive

  • Are we 100% sure he is not castrato? Or that this is not the result of a hormonal imbalance, or other natural fluke, they are quite a few natural phenomenon that can occur and put a person "between" genders and the myrid of characteristics that can appear are almost unlimited.

  • Well, he can grow a beard so I don't think it's hormonal ;)

  • @tubeview888 Well, he is my cousin, so with confidence I can say he is one fantastic male soprano. The End.

  • @tubeview888 Well, he is my cousin, so with confidence I can say he is one fantastic male soprano. The End.

  • @tubeview888

    Yes we are sure. His voice just didn't develop properly during puberty.

  • He is also a highly trained singer with a master in vocal performance from Julliard. He is a serious pedigree in the opera world.

  • WOW! He's a great singer though.

  • I rather hear a female soprano--If a woman sounded like this is would be considered mediocre--must my opinion of course:))

  • he is basically a natural castrato....which is very rare

  • Nah check out Radu Marian his voice never went through puberty due to some congenital disorder. Though I'd say this guy is the bridge between a typical countertenor and a castrato sound.

  • it is pretty rare

    if it wasnt, there would be many more high tenors

    it is a very beautiful sound tho

  • Yeah, sorry but he doesn't sound any different from any countertenor

  • He has more natural ease with this though and can use full voice for it which offers loads more versatility.

  • right, but by the reaction you would guess people are treating the use of the word castrato as a derogatory statement. A castrato is someone that had their testicles removed to prevent their larynx from developing in the normal way and preserving their higher vocal range. It appears that this might have occurred naturally for Michael M. And therefore your statement is accurate if so.

  • He's not a castrato or anything alike since he's hormonally perfectly normal. The absence of testosterone does a lot more than leave the voice high; it changes the whole body, which also affects the quality of the voice. MM is hormonally normal, which means that he's even rarer than a castrato - he has a high voice, but with all the depth, richness, and texture of a healthy male one, which they lacked.

    Basically, his balls are fine; his larynx just didn't feel like aging for some reason. :-)

  • if so, pretty cool

  • his speaking voice sounds a bit like julia child

  • Comment removed

  • His muffled laughter sounds a bit like Mickey Mouse to me O.O

  • had the exact same thought. lol

  • haha!

  • he's talking voice is more like a Man trying to impersonate a woman

  • I dont get it it sounds like falsetto...but yet he's very comfortable singing high, and does sound like a woman singing yet..I dunno..

  • yeah, that is not falsetto. you can hear it if you pay close attention.

  • he does sound like mickey!

  • Maniaci rox

  • He sounds like Mickey Mouse!

  • I know he does sound like mickey mouse a bit lol.

  • Tienes una voz preciosa la verdad!! :D

  • Beautiful!!!!!!!

  • His speaking voice sound like a man

  • :S no he doesn't, he sounds like in between haha

    like he sounds like a girl at points of it

  • true. WIthout lying and being honest i have a higher pitch speaking voice. In sing tenor but can sing up to soprano, i think 2nd soprano though but my notes vary in soprano range. I'm not trained or anything but i wish.

  • Nah, he sounds like a woman.

  • yeah he does but in between. You can still have a deep voice but it can sound feminine.

  • Michael seems to have a nerve palsy on one side of his face. Nerve pathology may have lead to atrophy of the facial muscles and normal development of his vocal cords, unilaterally. Thus a unique voice and high for a male. He has amazing control for the unilateral paralysis!