Joshua Hecht

Joshua Hecht (March 4, 1928 – March 29, 2019) was an American operatic bass and Broadway performer born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from New York University in 1951 and went on to build a career spanning opera houses across the United States and internationally.

Hecht studied with soprano Rosa Ponselle and made his formal operatic debut under her auspices with the Baltimore Civic Opera in 1953, taking the role of the Comte des Grieux in Manon. His association with the New York City Opera began in 1955, when he appeared as Monterone in Rigoletto alongside Cornell MacNeil in the title role. Over the following five years, he performed a wide range of roles with that company, including Colline in La bohème, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Timur in Turandot, and Banco in Macbeth. He also participated in several significant American premieres during this period: the New York premiere of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, featuring Phyllis Curtin and Norman Treigle and conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, in which he sang the Elder Ott and later the Reverend Olin Blitch; the American premiere of Frank Martin's Der Sturm, in which he portrayed Alonso; and the New York premiere of Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe, with Beverly Sills and directed by Vladimir Rosing, in which he sang William Jennings Bryan. He also appeared in the world premiere of Marc Blitzstein's Regina as Horace Giddens, and in 1958 portrayed a psychiatrist in the world premiere of Robert Kurka's The Good Soldier Schweik at Lincoln Center. Additional NYCO roles during this era included Ferrando in Il trovatore conducted by Julius Rudel, Jabez Stone in Douglas Moore's The Devil and Daniel Webster directed by John Houseman, Tirésias in Oedipus rex with Richard Cassilly and conducted by Leopold Stokowski, and the Police Agent in The Consul with Patricia Neway and Chester Ludgin.

Hecht returned to the New York City Opera from 1967 to 1970, singing Baron Scarpia in Tosca, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Méphistophélès in Faust staged by Frank Corsaro, the Comte des Grieux directed by Tito Capobianco, and Sergeant Abe Goldberg in the world premiere of Hugo Weisgall's Nine Rivers from Jordan. He rejoined the company once more in 1979 for Tosca.

His career extended well beyond New York. In 1956 he sang Il trovatore opposite Herva Nelli for San Francisco's Cosmopolitan Opera, and performed the same opera for the New Orleans Opera Association in 1961. The following year he sang Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Fort Worth Opera for Lily Pons's final appearances in that role, with a young Plácido Domingo as Edgardo. In 1965 he sang the title role in Der fliegende Holländer at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1969 he appeared in Manon and Lucia di Lammermoor with Beverly Sills and Luciano Pavarotti in Mexico City, and in 1970 he sang the Villains in Les contes d'Hoffmann opposite Dame Joan Sutherland at the Seattle Opera. His performing career also took him to Israel, Australia, Canada, and South America.

In 1971, Hecht appeared on Broadway in the musical Candide. Between 1972 and 1996 he lived in Europe, residing first in Italy and then in Germany. In 1986 he portrayed Leopold Bloom in the world premiere of Hans Zender's Stephen Climax at the Oper Frankfurt, the same year he became resident teacher at the Frankfurt Opera, a position he held until 1992. From 1995 onward he served as a guest teacher at Opera Australia, and he also held the position of Adjunct Associate Professor of Music at Hofstra University.

Among the conductors with whom Hecht worked were Leonard Bernstein, Karl Böhm, Richard Bonynge, Christoph von Dohnányi, Georges Prêtre, Robert Shaw, William Steinberg, and Sir Malcolm Sargent, among others. His commercial recordings include the 1958 Columbia recording of Blitzstein's Regina, the 1959 MGM recording of Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe with Beverly Sills, and a 1966 live recording of excerpts from Ponchielli's La Gioconda with Renata Tebaldi and Franco Corelli. Hecht died on March 29, 2019, in Sydney, Australia, at the age of ninety-one.