Yvonne Arnaud

Germaine Yvonne Arnaud (20 December 1890 – 20 September 1958) was a French-born pianist, singer and actress, who was well known for her career in Britain, as well as her native land.

Beginning that year, aged 14, until 1911, she performed with leading orchestras throughout Europe and the US, under conductors such as Édouard Colonne, Arthur Nikisch, Willem Mengelberg, Vasily Safonov, Gustav Mahler and Alexander Siloti.

She next played the leading role of Suzanne in the musical The Girl in the Taxi (1912), earning popularity with her vivacity and charming French accent.

After this, an operation damaged her vocal cords, and so she switched from musicals to plays, beginning with the role of Louise Allington in the farce Tons of Money, which ran for nearly two years at the Shaftesbury Theatre from 1922.

[3] Her success in this play led to her appearance in the second of the Aldwych farces as Marguerite in A Cuckoo in the Nest, by Ben Travers, which was a hit in 1925.

[7] Arnaud's likeness was drawn in caricature by Alex Gard for Sardi's, the New York City theatre district restaurant.

[2] She was also the soloist at the premiere of Franz Reizenstein's pastiche Concerto Popolare at the 1956 Hoffnung Festival (having been chosen after Eileen Joyce declined).

Arnaud starring as Lucille alongside Ernest Thesiger as Ambrose in the stage play “A Week End”. Lucille is a French woman who has a passion for blond men and is Ambrose’s love interest. [ 1 ]
The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford is named in her honour
Yvonne Arnaud's memorial in the churchyard of St. Martha's on the Hill