Safe Word, a one act opera from the three-act opera Three Way, libretto by David Cote, is one of eight operas that will be featured during Fort Worth Opera's Fronters showcase.

Synopsis: Mistress Salomé (mezzo-soprano) is a dominatrix in a deluxe dungeon. Today she welcomes a new client, a businessman (baritone). He’s having a rough day, and he’s ready to take it out on someone else—even though he's the one who pays to be humiliated. As Salomé conducts the session—role-playing, verbally and physically abusing the client, he says it’s not arousing him. He wants more intensity; he wants a "switch session." She refuses. He taunts and belittles her in a threatening manner. She tries to maintain control, but becomes angrier until, in a frenzy, she strangles the client in self-defense. He’s dead. She is shocked. Then, in a last-minute twist, we learn that the client is not dead, the woman is not a dominatrix and she has been paying for this sexual role-play, to find out what it’s like to be a dominatrix who murders a client.