Dog to a diva

Most New Yorkers are happy to have time off from work for the holidays. Not Jack the Maltese of Manhattan’s West Side.

The job of this tiny, 9-pound dog is to appear in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier,” which ended its run in October but resumes Jan. 1.

“He’s a friendly, happy dog that loves people, and he can deal with the unpredictability of stage work,” says Nancy Novograd of All Tame Animals, the talent agency that manages Jack’s career.

But Jack wasn’t always the picture of K9 confidence. As a pup, he was severely thunder-phobic. To calm him, “We would play him classical music,” recalls Jack’s owner, Joanna Doster. “He especially loved arias sung by Luciano Pavarotti.”

It makes sense then, that the 6-year-old pup is now Renée Fleming’s silent co-star — even he must resist the temptation to howl along with the diva during his 22-minute turn in the spotlight. But audiences marvel at how still he stays, especially when surrounded by loud commotion, as was the case in the 2008 Met production of Prokofiev’s “War and Peace.”

“He thinks everyone [attends to see] him,” says Doster, who accompanies Jack to every performance. In fact, the dog is so high-class that when she and her rock ’n’ roll-loving husband play Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton in the house, “Jack walks away as if to say, ‘You’re so plebeian.’”

Jack was named after the Rolling Stones’ song “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” But if he had his way, he’d probably be called Giacomo, as in Puccini, composer of “Manon Lescaut,” in which Jack appeared last year with Karita Mattila. The Finnish soprano gave him carrots and a new pet name, “Jacques.”

Whatever his moniker, he’ll be singing the blues until New Year’s Day. “Jack can’t wait to get back to work,” concludes his proud stage mother. Adds Novograd, “He loves the limelight.”

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