WASO plays Rodgers & Hammerstein with Jessica Gethin, Amy Lehpamer and Simon Gleeson at Perth Concert Hall

“Let us start at the very beginning,” Amy Lehpamer intoned to launch singalong favourite Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music, an emotional earworm for several generations in a packed Perth Concert Hall on Friday night.

Generations raised on the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical clapped, cheered, hollered and whistled on a gala night which broke a drought of live music and singing for many — not least Lehpamer.

The Victorian soprano brought vital enthusiasm to a program of time-honoured show numbers, paying a touching tribute to WA Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jessica Gethin.

The experience, she said, was “one of my favourite things” (cue music) after months of COVID curbs.

Gala nights can read like a hastily concocted shopping list, but this selection had form in following the timeline of Rodger & Hammerstein’s work, grouping numbers from six of their best-known musicals.

Scurrying strings opened the overture to Oklahoma! — familiar themes drifting over the auditorium like soothing balm.

It settled an effervescent audience whose excited chatter injected fairground energy to the hallowed hall.

WAAPA alumnus Simon Gleeson’s take on Oh, What a Beautiful Morning opened vistas to the cowboy west, the chorus rolling into view like an old friend.

Gethin was clearly having fun, easy-listening fare evoking ever-generous applause.

Lehpamer’s debut in I Cain’t Say No stepped up the engagement with warmth and charisma that transcended the #MeToo moment in the lyric.

Their duet in the show number, Oklahoma! — the one musical R&H wrote with an exclamation mark — filled the space, as did the band; brass especially exercised.

State Fair followed — Lehpamer inhabiting It Might As Well Be Spring, swooning through the ballad, “gay in a melancholy way”; Gleeson teeing up a rousing chorus to It’s A Grand Night For Singing.

Carousel came around next, the orchestra front and centre for the Waltz with the most nuanced symphonic sound yet; Gethin almost balletic in gesture to shape the music, the climax and finale drawing a well deserved ovation.

Soliloquy, and If I Loved You, showcased individual talents — with some intricate work in the orchestra to match Gleeson’s recitative; Lehpamer duetting in dreamy tones with lyrical woodwind and serene strings then rising to operatic heights to conclude the first half.

After the break it was South Pacific — towering chords in the ensemble summoning an ominous drum beat, warlike brass and horns a contrast to mellow strings.

A Wonderful Guy put Lehpamer back in the #MeToo spotlight — nonetheless sweetly sung — while Some Enchanted Evening evinced a hushed awe in Gleeson’s voice, and a glorious accompaniment in brass choir.

March of the Siamese Children, from The King and I, was a rich snack for orchestral buffs in complex development of a simple theme.

As if liberated from the Yankee twang of earlier shows, Lehpamer’s voice rang our full and clear in Getting To Know You — “suddenly I’m bright and breezy” — and the pair hit their straps in Shall We Dance? — a comic routine drawing the most raucous applause yet.

The Sound of Music rolled out with Edelweiss — Gleeson’s standout solo, easily besting the movie version — and My Favourite Things, Lehpamer channelling Julie Andrews in tone and diction before morphing to her own, more coquettish rendition.

After the singalong Do-Re-Mi, You’ll Never Walk Alone (Carousel) as encore turned the dial to footy stadium blitz before we all walked out into the night.