Acclaimed soprano Frederica von Stade returns to San Diego Opera this week to sing the lead role in Jake Heggie’s chamber opera Three Decembers, opening Friday, March 8. In her estimable career she has sung major roles in the great opera houses on both sides of the Atlantic and has made over 100 recordings that span the repertory from Mozart to Richard Strauss to Bernstein. But as a teenager, her sights were not fixed on the Met, but on Broadway. “We lived in New Jersey, and every weekend my friends and I would take the train into New York City…