L.A. artist in a Paris brochure

The Paris National Opera opened its 2004-05 season last month with a stark, arresting production of Debussy’s “Pelleas et Melisande” directed by Robert Wilson. And you can be certain that this first season under the management of Gerard Mortier, who delighted in conspicuously beautiful as well as outrageous productions when he headed the Salzburg Festival, will be visually all over the map. The Paris company’s handsome, expensively printed season brochure, however, is illustrated by photographs from the work of only one artist: Long Beach’s own Bill Viola.

The Paris season will end with a new production of Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde,” directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, for which Viola will create a video backdrop. But Mortier has selected potent images from recent Viola videos to advertise several of the company’s other productions as well. An altar of candles from “Catherine’s Room” seems almost as if it were made for Messiaen’s “Saint Francois d’Assise,” as does the anguished nude from “Union” for Strauss’ “Elektra.”

Perfect too is a shot from “Going Forth by Day” -- an old man lying dead in his seaside cottage, his soul about to board an old barge -- for “Tristan.” For that opera, Viola, who is currently shooting in Downey, will accompany the purification, love, death and transformation of Tristan and Isolde with spectacular imagery that relies heavily on fire and water.

Angelenos will get a preview of the Wagner work when the Los Angeles Philharmonic mounts its “Tristan Project” at Walt Disney Concert Hall in December. But for the full effect, you’ll have to hie yourself to France in April or May. While there, though, you can pick up a copy of the brochure, which is as fine as a miniature art book.