The musical polymath Rhiannon Giddens has mined African-American folk traditions and the deep and varied roots of old-time music as a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and a successful solo artist. She also studied opera at Oberlin, and hosted a quirky podcast called Aria Code that deconstructed excerpts from Puccini and Verdi.

Now Ms. Giddens is working on a project that promises to unite many of her musical interests: She has been commissioned to write an opera based on the autobiography of Omar Ibn Said, a Muslim-African man who was enslaved and transported to the notorious Gadsden’s Wharf in Charelston, S.C., in 1807. The opera will have its premiere next spring in Charleston at the Spoleto Festival USA, which commissioned it with Carolina Performing Arts.

“My work as a whole is about excavating and shining a light on pieces of history that not only need to be seen and heard, but that can also add to the conversation about what’s going on now,” Ms. Giddens, who has won Grammy Awards and a MacArthur “genius” grant, said in a statement. “This is a story that hasn’t been represented in the operatic world — or in any world.”