His Italian adaptation of "Tarare", "Axur" proved to be his greatest international success. "Axur" was widely produced throughout Europe and it even reached South America with the exiled royal house of Portugal in 1824. "Axur" and his other new compositions completed by 1792 marked the height of Salieri's popularity and his influence. Just as his apogee of fame was being reached abroad, his influence in Vienna began to diminish with the death of Joseph II in 1790. Joseph's death deprived Salieri of his greatest patron and protector. During this period of imperial change in Vienna and revolutionary ferment in France, Salieri composed two additional extremely innovative musical dramas to libretti by Giovanni Casti. Due, however, to their satiric and overtly liberal political inclinations, both operas were seen as unsuitable for public performance in the politically reactive cultures of Leopold II and later Francis II. This resulted in two of his most original operas being consigned to his desk drawer, namely "Cublai, gran kan de' Tartari" ("Kublai Grand Kahn of Tartary") a satire on the autocracy and court intrigues at the court of the Russian Tsarina, Catherine the Great, and "Catilina" a semi-comic/semi-tragic account of the Catiline conspiracy that attempted to overthrow the Roman republic during the consulship of Cicero. These operas were composed in 1787 and 1792 respectively. Two other operas of little success and long term importance were composed in 1789, and one great popular success "La cifra" ("The Cipher").