NEW YORK – Images of fire, floods, and even naked bodies flash on a giant video screen above the stage as the concert hall fills with the sounds of Richard Wagner’s doomed lovers playing out their tragic story.

If you kept your eyes shut at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall on Saturday afternoon, you would swear you were in the midst of an exceptionally fine performance of “Tristan und Isolde.”

Once you opened them, however, you were thrust into a disorienting, and frequently fascinating, multimedia version of the opera called the “The Tristan Project.”

It’s a collaboration among visual artist Bill Viola, director Peter Sellars and Esa-Pekka Salonen, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It premiered in Los Angeles, went to Paris, and now finally has made its way to New York, where Saturday’s matinee was the last of two performances.

Viola writes in his program notes that his goal was to create a visual world that does far more than merely “illustrate or represent the story directly.” Instead, he strives for images that evoke the underlying themes of the opera’s three acts, which he labels Purification, Awakening of the Body of Light, and Dissolution of the Self.

Some of the images are stunning on their own terms and also enhance the experience of hearing “Tristan” performed, but often these are images that do, in fact, seem to represent the action. For instance, as the hero lies dying in Act 3, awaiting the arrival of his beloved, we see the shimmering, dissolving figure of a woman walking through water to approach a beach. At the opening of Act 2, as Isolde impatiently waits for dark so she and Tristan can meet in secret while her husband, King Marke, is off hunting, we see a darkening forest with ominous figures darting about with flashlights.

At times the images are distracting, perhaps deliberately so, as in Act 1, when a male and female model on either side of a split screen slowly disrobe until they are completely naked and then undergo a cleansing ritual.

Musically, the performance was outstanding. Soprano Christine Brewer, who has emerged as a leading Isolde in recent years, combines power and warmth to produce a remarkable sound. The voice is evenly produced and amply cushioned throughout its range, excepting a couple of exposed high C’s in Act 2. And she gave a fiercely dramatic interpretation of the role, bringing a venomous bite to her Narrative and Curse, and summoning extra resources for a majestic final Liebestod.

Her partner was Christian Franz, who flew in from Germany as a last-minute replacement. He proved a welcome addition to the cast, with a potent heldentenor sound that caressed the vocal line lyrically in quieter moments. Brewer and Franz are scheduled to sing in the Met’s “Ring” cycle revival in 2008-09, and that should be quite a feast for the ear.

Mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter excelled as Brangaene, Isolde’s servant, while bass-baritone Jukka Rasilainen sounded hearty if sometimes a bit gruff as Kurwenal, Tristan’s faithful friend. Bass-baritone John Relyea gave emotional punch to King Marke’s long soliloquy after he discovers the lovers have betrayed him.

It was a special treat having the Los Angeles Philharmonic on stage in full view along with Salonen’s animated conducting. They sounded great, including the soloists who occasionally chimed in from the back of the hall. The singers also did more than merely stand on stage, singing from the balconies at times and in Rasilainen’s case, even running down the aisle and leaping on stage to warn Tristan of King Marke’s return from the hunt.