Hecht was a student of Rosa Ponselle, and made his formal debut with her company, the Baltimore Civic Opera, in 1953, as the Comte des Grieux in Manon.
From 1955 to 1960, the bass sang with that ensemble, as Colline in La bohème, Cesare Angelotti in Tosca, Sparafucile in Rigoletto (with Aldo Protti, later Louis Quilico, as the jester), Ferrando in Il trovatore (conducted by Julius Rudel), Oronte in Rolf Liebermann's School for Wives, the Elder Ott in the New York premiere of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah (with Phyllis Curtin and Norman Treigle, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf), Alonso in the American premiere of Frank Martin's Der Sturm, Timur in Turandot, Banco in Macbeth, William Jennings Bryan in the New York premiere of Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe (with Beverly Sills, directed by Vladimir Rosing), Horace Giddens in the world premiere of Marc Blitzstein's Regina, Farfallo in Die schweigsame Frau, Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia, the Reverend Olin Blitch in Susannah, Jabez Stone in Douglas Moore's The Devil and Daniel Webster (directed by John Houseman), Tirésias in Oedipus rex (with Richard Cassilly, conducted by Leopold Stokowski), the Police Agent in The Consul (with Patricia Neway and Chester Ludgin, conducted by Werner Torkanowsky), Plutone in L'Orfeo, and Don Alonso in Così fan tutte.
[2] Hecht sang again with the City Opera from 1967 to 1970, as the Baron Scarpia in Tosca, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Sergeant Abe Goldberg in the world premiere of Hugo Weisgall's Nine Rivers from Jordan, the Comte des Grieux (directed by Tito Capobianco), and Méphistophélès in Faust (staged by Frank Corsaro).
The next year, Hecht was the Raimondo for Lily Pons's final appearances in Lucia di Lammermoor, with the young Plácido Domingo as Edgardo, at the Fort Worth Opera.
Other conductors with whom Hecht collaborated included Leonard Bernstein, Karl Böhm, Richard Bonynge, Renato Cellini, Christoph von Dohnányi, Sir Charles Groves, Walter Herbert, Georges Prêtre, Nicola Rescigno, Joseph Rosenstock, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Robert Shaw, William Steinberg, Silvio Varviso, and Marcello Viotti.