And sure enough, the retelling of Christ's last days through the eyes of Mary Magdalene is interlaced with heavy doses of modern social activism in this stirring new oratorio, composed by John Adams to a libretto compiled by Peter Sellars from texts both ancient and contemporary.

WSJ: John Adams' staged 'Gospel' has NY premiere

The Met's joint commissioning program with Lincoln Center Theater will conduct a workshop this spring of Scott Wheeler's "The Sorrows of Frederick, " with a libretto by the late Romulus Linney based on his 1960s play.

WSJ: Met cuts ticket prices following box office slump

The companies used an unspecified infrared-equipped Palm device and a Toshiba Libretto, which beamed requests for check authorizations to a point-of-sale terminal, in this case a VeriFone Tranz 330 that was retrofitted with an infrared device from ACTiSYS and a custom cable from CrossCheck.

CNN: Infrared payment could replace credit and debit cards