A novel mathematical approach is proposed for the analysis of the reflection, diffraction and refraction of spherical waves from curved material interfaces. As a paradigm, this approach is applied to the radiation of a vertical electric dipole over an electrically homogenous sphere. The material of the sphere can be dielectric or conducting. The radius of the sphere is assumed to be much greater than the wavelength in its less dense exterior. The formulation is developed for any height of the dipole above the sphere and for any radial distance of the point of observation from the center of the sphere. Novel expansions are applied to the integral representations of the resulting fields. It is shown that contributions to the value of the fields can be produced either from stationary-phase points of the integrands that are generated by such expansions or from any of the two strings of poles of these integrands. Contributions from rapidly converging residue series, as opposed to those coming from stationary-phase points, correspond to wave trajectories containing a curved path in addition to rectilinear paths. For the sake of demonstration, approximate analytical formulas for computation are derived for a number of select cases. The method yields leading-order approximations for the reflected and refracted fields. The affinity with the reflection from a planar interface is analysed.