Goethe is king on Walpurgis Night.

Walpurgis Night, the eve of the feast day of Saint Walpurga, is a time when evil spirits are believed to roam the earth. Tradition tells of a witches’ sabbath and orgy of the damned held atop the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz Mountains in Central Germany. It’s the last blast of diablerie before May Day. In Goethe’s “Faust,” Mephistopheles guides his imperiled charge into a swirling cauldron of witches and demons so as to complete his moral degradation.

This Monday afternoon on The Classical Network, we’ll have some musical depictions of Faust and Mefistopheles. Luciano Pavarotti will sing the role of Faust in the Classical Walpurgis Night scene (no witches, but a romantic interlude with the shade of Helen of Troy, sung by Montserrat Caballé) from Arrigo Boito’s “Mefistofele.” We’ll hear the irresistible ballet music from Charles Gounod’s “Faust.” Then, clearly relishing his demonic laughter, Bryn Terfel will sing “Mephistopheles’ Serenade.”

Felix Mendelssohn wrote a cantata, after Goethe’s “Die erste Walpurgisnacht” (“The First Walpurgis Night”), in which prankish Druids get the best of their superstitious occupiers. It ain’t “Faust,” but it will do.

The afternoon will open with Wilhelm Stenhammar’s overture, “Excelsior!” The score is prefaced by a motto which begins, “Yet each in him may find a native longing/To rise and travel far and far away,” lifted from – you guessed it – “Faust.” As time allows, we’ll also hear Charles-Valentin Alkan’s “Quasi-Faust” from his “Grande Sonata,” Edward MacDowell’s “Hexentanz,” and Edmond Dédé’s “Mephisto Masqué” (complete with kazoo choir). To place a seal upon our musical pact, Carlos Paita will rock the Brocken with Hector Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique.”

There’s plenty percolating for Walpurgis Night, this Monday from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

More about Lewis Morrison, a remarkable figure who achieved world fame as Mephistopheles, here:

http://www.blackpast.org/aah/morris-morris-w-lewis-morrison-1845-1906