E-Mail This Article to a Friend Performing Politicians OperaBoston presents Nixon in China, flowers are blooming at the flower show and more.

Nixon sings!

When it comes to modern opera, there’s nothing more quintessentially American than a singing Dick Nixon. And that’s what’s on tap in the Boston debut of Pulitzer-winning composer John Adams’s Nixon in China, being presented by OperaBoston and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project for two shows only, at the Cutler Majestic Theater, 219 Tremont Street in Boston, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. and March 13 at 2 p.m. Scott Edmiston directs and Gil Rose conducts, with Andrew Schroeder as Richard, Elizabeth Weigel as Pat, Thomas Meglioranza as Chou En Lai, and Daniel Norman as Mao Tse-tung. The shows are expected to sell out in advance; tickets are $24 to $85. Call (800) 447-7400, or visit http://www.operaboston.org/.

In bloom

Weather changes moods. And though spring isn’t quite here again, there’s a warm light at the end of our wind-tunnel of a winter in the 133rd annual New England Spring Flower Show, which is expected to attract over 100,000 green-thumbers for nine days’ worth of gardening nirvana in March. As always, the show will feature the work of local and international landscapers, who’ll transform the barren, cavernous Bayside Expo Center with more than 50 well-manicured Edens. (Nature’s such a whore.) Sponsored by the Mass Horticultural Society, the show runs March 13 through 21; the Bayside is at 200 Mount Vernon Street near Columbia Point in Boston. And with tickets priced at $20 for weekends and $17 for weekdays, you won’t have to sell the kids for food. Call (866) 468-7619.

Dance tracks

While some of its dancers are getting their ya-yas out in this week’s "Raw Dance" program, the rest of the Boston Ballet is hard at work prepping its next big show with choreographer Val Caniparoli, who got to town two weeks ago to give pointers on both his Lady of the Camellias, which the BB performs March 18 through 21 and April 1 through 4, and also a new commission that will be unveiled for the Ballet’s repertory program that pops up in between, March 25 through 28. Camellias, based on the tragic Dumas tale that also contributed its DNA to Verdi’s La traviata and George Cukor’s Camille, concerns the ill-fated dalliance of a 19th-century gentleman and a courtesan. Tickets are $38 to $95, and all performances are at the Wang Center, 270 Tremont Street in Boston. Call (800) 447-7400.

Celtics

Here in Boston, we like our Irish music, well, really Irish — you know, cereal-box leprechaun Irish. (See Dropkick Murphys.) But for a look at what actual contemporary Irish rock feels like, it’s worth checking out the singer-songwriter Damien Rice, whose aching sotto-voce disc O (Warner Bros.) so captivated American audiences that it wound up on VH1 and took the coveted Shortlist award (the American version of the UK’s Mercury Prize.) He’s touring with the Frames, whose live album Set List marks their debut on Epitaph’s Anti- offshoot. Both acts play Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street in Boston, April 17. Tickets are $22.25; call (617) 423-NEXT.