Women are making more progress these days as politicians than as conductors of orchestras and opera companies. But the Dallas Symphony Orchestra has announced new initiatives to appoint female principal guest conductors and composers-in-residence. The Dallas Opera, which has its own female principal guest conductor in Nicole Paiement, three years ago launched the annual Hart Institute for Women Conductors. Participants in the latter, just breaking into conducting careers, get two weeks of major-league coaching in conducting, rehearsal techniques and career development.

On Saturday night, at the Winspear Opera House, this year's six Institute conductors led singers and the Dallas Opera Orchestra in excerpts from operas ranging from the 18th century to the 20th. (Why nothing newer than Benjamin Britten's 1945 Peter Grimes?) The concert was also a showcase for some impressive singers.

Younger conductors are often tempted to put on choreographic shows when tauter, more specific gestures are far more helpful to both singers and orchestras. (Orchestra musicians hate podium flailers.) Automatically mirroring one's right hand with the left is a pointless waste of motion – and deprives the left hand of expressive potential.

Sarah Penicka-Smith, from Australia, didn't manage to "sell" a murky Straussian Intermezzo from Franz Schmidt's 1904 Notre Dame, but she accompanied stylishly and sensitively in an aria from Vivaldi's Giustino and responded keenly to the twists and turns of a heart-rending duet from Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Both vocally and physically, tenor Angel Vargas and soprano Toni Marie Palmertree dramatized the latter to powerful emotional effect.

Maria Sensi-Sellner conducts during the Dallas Opera's Hart Institute for Women Conductors Showcase Concert at the Winspear Opera House on Nov. 10, 2018. (Jason Janik / Special Contributor)

With singers slightly downstage from the podium, conductors could manage only occasional eye contact. But in a duet from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, hardly glancing at the singers, Maria Sensi-Sellner just seemed to know what they were going to do, and to provide just the right support. The American conductor also smartly managed the contrasting moods of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa Overture, although she didn't quite enliven Embroidery in childhood, from Peter Grimes.

Portuguese-born, Brazilian trained, Priscila Bomfim didn't always know what to do with her left hand, but her right-hand specificity vividly characterized selections from Weber's Euryanthe, Verdi's Rigoletto and Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur.

Emily Senturia conducts during the Dallas Opera's Hart Institute for Women Conductors Showcase Concert. (Jason Janik / Special Contributor)

Emily Senturia, another American, gave a crisp account of Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila Overture, but it could have been more imaginatively phrased. She capably accompanied an aria from Simon Boccanegra, but with three singers determined to out-sing one another she didn't quite keep control of the famous trio from Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier.

Audrey Saint-Gil conducts during the Dallas Opera's Hart Institute for Women Conductors Showcase Concert at the Winspear Opera House. (Jason Janik / Special Contributor)

French conductor Audrey Saint-Gil was clear but expressive in Smetana's Bartered Bride Overture and a trio from Verdi's Don Carlos.

French-born Sonia Ben-Santamaria's extravagant exertions, without baton, conveyed a certain excitement in Donizetti's Don Pasquale Overture, but were distracting to watch – and they sometimes blurred transitions. It was more of the same in an aria from Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, but Vargas sang so stirringly that it was hard to pay attention to the podium.

Kudos to the orchestra, which responded caringly and (mostly) well to a succession of very different conductors. In addition to Palmertree and Vargas, singers I very much hope to hear again were Ryan Belongie (with a beautifully creamy countertenor), Daryl Freedman (a thrilling mezzo that could blaze or smolder) and William Meinert (a modest-size but beautifully polished bass).

Formerly classical music critic of The Dallas Morning News, Scott Cantrell continues covering the beat as a freelance writer. Classical music coverage at The News is supported in part by a grant from the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. The News makes all editorial decisions.

CORRECTION, 5:16 p.m., Nov. 11, 2018: An earlier version of this review incorrectly attributed the opera Don Pasquale to Verdi.